


Wasn't Expecting That

by SunshineScorpius



Series: The Power of Love [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Scorbus, cute af, scorpius and albus - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-11 08:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17443451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineScorpius/pseuds/SunshineScorpius
Summary: Albus Potter never believed in true love. His parents had divorced and that was all the evidence he needed. So, when a strange new boy with shockingly blonde hair transfers to Hogwarts following Christmas break and takes a liking to Albus, he isn’t exactly sure how he should feel about it.





	1. The Mysterious Malfoy

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first multi-chapter fic!!!!! I'm actually kind of shook that I've managed to write one and one that I'm quite proud of.
> 
> This piece of work is completed and will be updated every couple of days until it's completion, I mean it's only seven chapters so you'll have the finished product in no time. Knowing me it won't take long so you won't be waiting too long!
> 
> All I can say it sit back, enjoy and I hope you really like it because I've been working on it for a while (hence why I've been slow in other updates such as Little Talks or just any kind of oneshot).
> 
> All the love, my darlings!
> 
> Kudos and comments welcome, always!

_24th December, 2021_

“Just admit it, true love doesn’t exist Lily. It’s just something that happens in those muggle films you love so much,” Albus spoke, storming up the stairs. His little sister followed him, her cheeks almost the same colour as her hair.

“Maybe mum and dad will work it out?” She questioned in a tone so like their mothers. Lily was basically the thirteen-year-old version of their mother. Albus liked to imagine Ginny was just as fierce at that age too. Albus stopped at the top of the stairs, turning to face his sister, who stopped just before him. His older brother James opened his bedroom door at that moment, his girlfriend Sarah hiding just behind him, both curious to the commotion.

“Mum and dad are divorcing, if they can’t keep their marriage together then that just shows true love is dead.” Lily stared up at him, her eyes filling with tears threatening to spill over her cheeks.

“But what about Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron? Or Gran and Grampa, or Bill and Fleur or George and Angelina?”

“Okay, I get your point, but mum loved dad from when she was your age, Lils, and now she’s decided she just doesn’t love him anymore? How is that?” Lily folded her arms, hot, wet tears now falling down her rosy cheeks. Albus hadn’t meant to upset her, but she was obsessed with the idea that their mum and dad hadn’t just dropped the biggest bombshell of their lives on them. They were getting divorced, two people who had been together since they were sixteen years old – an age Albus would be in the next six months. Albus used to believe in true love, he grew up watching it, but now that his parents were no longer happy, it was hard to believe anything other than that true love was dead. If two people who had a family, who had loved each other for twenty-three years couldn’t fix their relationship then love wasn’t real. That much he knew.

Albus sighed, pulling Lily into a deep hug, wrapping his arms around her tightly, hoping his shirt would soak up the tears. James joined them in the hug. They were all just as upset about it. It was Christmas break and they hadn’t seen their parents since the beginning of term and on Christmas eve – of all fucking days – decided to tell their children that this was the last Christmas they’d be spending together as their dad was moving out due to their current pending divorce. Lily had cried, James stayed silent, Albus punched a wall.

Albus desperately wanted out the house, he wanted to run and run and never come back. Perhaps he’d go to his grandmother’s house, Christmas was always better there anyway. There was no point, however, because they would be heading there early in the morning anyway. So, Albus stayed. He stayed for his sister, whose heart was breaking hard. He stayed for his brother who idolised his father and mothers’ relationship and now watched it fall apart at the seams. He stayed for himself, because Albus needed his siblings now just as much as they needed him.

All three pulled away at almost the same time. James, tears in eyes, gave Albus a small, comforting smile and Albus tried his best to return it.

“I have an idea,” his younger siblings looked up at his mischievous grin etched onto his face. Albus’ face was halfway to forming an eyeroll, and Lily’s returned James’ smile. “We could steal some Firewhiskey, set up a game of Wizards’ chess and play?”

“Why do we need the Firewhiskey? Lily is thirteen, James, and I’m only fifteen,” Albus said, ever the level-headed one. It must have been the Slytherin in him. He always seemed to be the voice of reason compared to his impulsive Gryffindor siblings and cousins.

“Well, the Firewhiskey was mainly for me and Sarah, but you can have some too if you want baby bro? And obviously I won’t let Lily have any. Mom and dad would actually murder me if they ever found out.”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter, but I am up for Wizards chess, Albus’ rooms? His is biggest?” Lily asked, rocking back and forth on her heels, beaming up at Albus with eyes that he could never say no too. Albus nodded, rolling his eyes and turning to walk into his room. Lily whooped behind him, running downstairs to grab the game of Wizards Chess and coming back into Albus’ room and began setting it up. James and Sarah walked in a few moments later, a bottle of dad’s Firewhiskey in his hand and two glasses. Albus rolled his eyes.

They ended up playing about four games, Lily and Albus versus James and Sarah. James cast a _Muffliato_ charm over Albus’ room so they could no longer hear their parents arguing downstairs. They were about to start their fifth game to settle their drawing score when Ginny knocked on the door. James quickly hid the bottle under Albus’ bed.

“Kids, it’s time for bed, it’s Christmas tomorrow.” She said. Albus noted with sadness the tired look in her eyes. They were red and blotchy, and he knew she’d been crying. Her voice croaked slightly and Albus desperately wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be okay. But he’d be lying, so he stayed put.

“Okay, mum,” Lily sighed, leaning over to Albus to give him a kiss on the cheek before doing the same to James and Sarah. Lily bid them all goodbyes before following her mother out the room. James picked up his bottle, asking Sarah to hide it in her dressing gown – to which she obliged – and they both hugged Albus and wished him a goodnight. Albus crawled into bed, desperate for sleep that never came, the untouched game of Wizards Chess still sat on his floor. For the first time that night since his parents had broken the news, he let himself cry in the dark of his room. His tears flooded his pillow and he fell into a restless, dreamless sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

_3 rd January, 2022._

Christmas passed quickly. Christmas day had certainly been an awkward one. The Potter family simply weren’t in the spirit. The three kids sat on Grandma Molly’s sofa together at The Burrow, opened their presents and thanked everyone with as much enthusiasm as they could muster. The Burrow, as it did every year, exploded with people. The Weasley family had been a big one, and now all the kids had grown and had multiple kids of their own, it seemed to never stop growing. Albus always felt suffocated here, but this year it felt even worse. This year, his siblings felt it too.

His dad had moved out before the kids returned to Hogwarts. He insisted that James and Albus helped him move whilst Lily had a pamper day with Ginny. The moving day had been awful, the tiny flat that Harry now had would never be enough for all three of his kids to stay at once, which only made Albus angry. He had three kids, he could at least accommodate for them, knowing they’d all probably want to visit at the same time. However, Albus bit his tongue – something he was never normally good at – and helped his dad to the best of his ability. Though it was increasingly more frustrating when his father and brother could levitate the boxes and Albus couldn’t for one of two reasons. The first: he sucked at magic. Everyone at school was convinced he was a Squib, and Albus was so close to just giving up magic altogether and joining the muggle world. Second: he was under-age, so his father – head of Magical Law Enforcement – would never, ever let him cast a spell.

However, before the siblings knew it, it was time to head back to Hogwarts and all of them – even Albus – was happy to get away from the suffocating household they’d been in over Christmas. Lily bounced up and down on her trolley all the way to platform 9 and ¾ from the car, Ginny desperately trying to calm her. One by one they made their way onto the platform, instantly greeted by a mass of witches and wizards in long robes and cloaks making their way across the platform and saying goodbye to their children.

“Dad!” Lily shouted, abandoning her trolley to Ginny and running over to her father, who was stood with Albus’ Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron. Harry made his own way to the platform agreeing to meet the others there, saving them the awkward car journey together. He insisted on seeing them off. Lily crashed into Harry, giving him a big hug. The others eventually joined, and everyone was swapping hugs and jokes and laughter to each other. Albus’ cousins’ Hugo and Rose came back over after dropping their luggage off and exchanged their hugs with the others too.

“Is that?” Hermione said.

“No way.” Harry whispered.

“What’s he doing here?” Ron spat.

Albus, Lily, James, Hugo and Rose all followed their gaze. Albus’ eyes landed on a small family of two, their hair white as snow in stark contrast to the black robes they were both wearing. The boy was staring up at who Albus presumed was his father – they certainly looked alike. At that moment, the older man looked up and caught eyes with Potters and Granger-Weasley’s staring at them. The boy turned his head too, realising they were being stared at and instantly moved to hide behind his dad. Albus’ heart ached for him, he knew exactly what it was like to be stared at in public, though usually people were staring because his dad was the famous Harry Potter and his mother was a famous Chaser of the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team. Albus didn’t really care for heroism or Quidditch, so his parents fame was something that was only an inconvenience at best.

“Dad, who is that?” Asked Hugo. Hugo, much like Albus, was the only other one in their family to be sorted into a different house. Though Hufflepuff suited Hugo. James, Lily and Rose had all been sorted into Gryffindor, and the majority of his extended family had also been sorted there too, following the famous Weasley Gryffindor gene. Albus had, however, inherited the Slytherin gene from his father, and although Harry was never sorted into Slytherin, the hat had seriously considered it.

“Draco Malfoy,” he spat. “And that must be little Scorpius, the little brat,” Albus instantly looked at his Uncle with a fierce stare, one he hoped resembled his mothers. How could he call a child he’s never met a brat?

“Scorpius has transferred here from Beauxbatons,” Hermione said, matter-of-factly. “Over Christmas I had to oversee a magical test he had to do to pass for transfer, he’s incredibly talented,” she added as an off-thought, “and witness his sorting, he’ll be in Rose’s and Albus’ year.” Hermione was the Minister of Magic, so she must have had some sort of say in Scorpius' transfer.

“Let me guess, he’s a Slytherin like his snake of a father?” Ron spat again, and Hermione nodded.

“Okay, I’m done. Let me know when you’ve let go of your biases towards my house, Uncle Ron,” Albus spat, kissing his mom on the cheek and hugging his dad goodbye before stalking off with his belongings. He liked picturing his family’s faces of disbelief behind him at his sudden outburst. He knew Ron held prejudices, he was from an all pure-blood Gryffindor family after all. All pure-bloods held some sort of prejudice against each other. But surely, Albus being in Slytherin proved all of those prejudices wrong? Obviously not. On his way to dropping off his belongings, he passed Scorpius Malfoy getting on the train and gave him a slight smile. He seemed apprehensive but simply returned it. Albus dropped them off and stalked towards the entrance of the train.

“Albus,” his cousin, Rose shouted, and he looked behind to see his siblings and cousins catching up to him. He decided to wait and board the train with them, they usually all sat together, which was a relief as Albus didn’t actually have any friends at Hogwarts.

“Don’t worry about Uncle Ron, mate, he’s always like that.” James spoke, patting Albus on the back as they boarded the train. Rose led the way, stalking her way through the aisles looking for a carriage. They usually had the same one every year, people would specifically leave it for them simply because they knew the Potter’s and Granger-Weasley’s would claim it. Sometimes other cousins of theirs joined, but it was usually only for a few minutes.

“Doesn’t make it okay,” Albus muttered back and James went silent, because it was true. They stopped at their usual carriage, and Albus heard Rose scoff in front of him. He rolled his eyes because _what now?_ Rose opened the carriage, but only slightly stepped in. Albus came up behind her, peering over her bushy hair to get a view of the sight that disgusted her so much.

“Out,” she said simply, sounding scarily like her mother. James, Lily and Hugo had now also gathered behind Rose, blocking the exit anyway. Inside sat Scorpius Malfoy. His head was in a book which quickly shot up when Rose spoke, his face forming a deer-in-the-headlights sort of look. His eyes were wide, and Albus noticed how pale they were, as well as the rest of him. His eyes were grey behind his thick-rimmed glasses, not deep enough to be called blue. He looked almost like an angel, if angels were real.

“S-sorry?” He stuttered, slowly closing the book.

“Out, this our carriage,” she spoke again, her voice still bitter and fierce.

“Rose, don’t be so rude,” Albus spat at her and Rose looked back at him in disbelief. Albus rolled his eyes at her. Why was everyone being so horrible today? First his Uncle, now Rose. James looked over at Albus and gave him a sympathetic look, even Lily looked embarrassed at Rose’s behaviour. Lily usually admired her fierceness, inspired to be like her even, but now she was just being down-right rude and horrible.

“O-oh, erm, sorry,” he scrambled up from his seat and began gathering his belongings. “I didn’t realise, I-I’m sorry.” He stuttered again. Albus couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. The man on the platform standing with Scorpius looked so scary and dark, and the adults spat his name in shock and disbelief. Albus had heard the name Malfoy before and there was nothing good associated with it. But Albus could not quite believe that babbling bumbling fumbling ball of mess in front of him descended from a line of dark witches and wizards. Scorpius went to leave, but realised his only exit was blocked. Albus, only to help out the poor boy, pushed Rose aside and moved himself so Scorpius could squeeze out.

“I smell a rat,” someone said behind him. Albus turned to see a seventh year Gryffindor, one of James’ friend, holding his wand out. “Actually, it’s just a Malfoy,” Albus tried to react, but the trip-jinx was faster than him and Scorpius Malfoy went flying to the floor. His book and carry-on went everywhere, his glasses falling from his face and breaking under the pressure. Scorpius, however, didn’t bother retaliating. He didn’t even look to see where the jinx had come from, he just gathered his belongings, his broken pair of glasses and ran off down the corridor.

“That’s not cool man,” James said, shoving his friend into the carriage where the rest of his family now sat.

“What? Voldemort’s son shouldn’t even be at Hogwarts?” Albus rolled his eyes, what a stupid rumour that was. Scorpius was clearly the son of Draco Malfoy, just seeing them standing on the platform together you could see the resemblance.

“Fuck you all,” Albus spat to his family, mainly aimed the curse at Rose and James’ friend and turned away, walking down the carriage to find where Scorpius had disappeared to.


	2. True Love - What a Load of Bullshit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry, I was meant to upload this yesterday but my shitty life got in the way! However, here is chapter 2! Hope you enjoy it :D
> 
> Kudos and comments deeply appreciated! All the love xo

_ 3rd January, 2022. _

Albus made his way down the carriage, ignoring the shouts he got from his family following his curse at them. Albus weren’t sure if it was his deep loyalty to his Hogwarts house that he now felt fiercely protective of this new, strange boy, or if it was just that he reminded Albus so much of himself: an outsider in a world where he should fit in. He decided it was a bit of both. After what seemed like a mile walk and two carriages later Albus had found Scorpius in a carriage on his own. Albus knocked on the window, causing Scorpius to look up at him. He had been surveying the damage on his glasses, his wand sat precariously between his teeth, a gesture Albus nearly laughed at. Albus took his stare as an invitation to open the door and so he did.

“You’re not kicking me out of this one as well, are you?” This time his voice didn’t stutter after he took the wand from his mouth. He was fiercer this time, like he was ready to fight back. Albus shook his head.

“Mind if I join you?” Scorpius looked at him apprehensively before nodding, gesturing with his wand to the bench opposite him. Albus took a seat where he gestured. Scorpius went back to surveying the damage.

“Doesn’t look good,” he spoke. Because now Albus was here he had absolutely no idea what to actually say. He wanted to talk to him, whether it was to defy his family in some sort of way or whether it was because he actually wanted to talk to the mysterious Malfoy boy.

“Nothing I can’t fix,” Scorpius mumbled, taking his wand and casting _Oculus Reparo_ , his glasses instantly becoming fixed and putting them on the sit next to him. Albus knew _Reparo_ was a simple spell, one most people his age would know by now, but Albus struggled with even the simplest of spells. Now, give him a cauldron and some potion ingredients and he was in his element.

“I’m sorry about my stupid family,” Albus said and Scorpius looked up to him. “That was really rude of them, I can’t even say they won’t do it again because Rose is Rose, mostly a complete tosser, but the others are alright once you get the know them. The guy who tripped you isn’t even related to me, thank god otherwise I probably would have divorced my family years ago.” Scorpius let out a little chuckle.

“Well, thanks,” Scorpius said. “This isn’t some sort of joke is it?” Scorpius asked, his eyes meeting Albus’. He was so beautiful that he actually took Albus’ breath away. His voice had a slight French accent, but other than that he spoke in eloquent English, and Albus wondered if Scorpius could speak French. Because that would be extremely hot.

“No, no, no, no, no, not at all, I promise.” Albus held up his one hand and held the other over his heart. “Scouts honour,” Albus spoke, before foolishly realising that Scorpius had probably never watched any muggle American movie and probably had no clue what a Scout was. Albus desperately wanted to join the Scouts – the English version, of course - when he was younger, but his father never let him.

“Right, am I supposed to know what that means? Because it’s no British thing or French thing, I can assure you of that,” at that, Albus grinned.

“It’s an American thing, it’s stupid. I’m Albus,” his said, stretching his hand out to Scorpius. “Potter,” he verified. Scorpius looked at his hand wearily, as though he was going to be holding one those shock buttons or something. However, he took it.

“Scorpius Malfoy, though I’m sure you already knew that.” Albus shrugged.

“So, what brings you to Hogwarts? I didn’t even know you could transfer here? Never seen anyone do it before.”

“You can do anything if your daddy has enough money,” Scorpius said, sarcasm thick on his tone whilst he rolled his eyes. Albus opened his mouth to respond but Scorpius cut him off before his had a chance. “Oh, that sounded really snobby, I’m not a snob and I don’t think my dad threw money at the ministry to let me in, apparently it’s a new thing. My dad tried to get me in the school two years ago but was unsuccessful, so he home-schooled me. The Minister for Magic owled my dad over Christmas and said there was a place for me subject to me passing a magical test,” he rambled.

“Which you aced? I’m guessing, you look like you could cast a decent spell,” Albus said, grinning at his new friend. He finally had a friend.

“I was top of my class at Beauxbatons until dad pulled me out. He said I needed to go back so I could actually get some qualifications, but I always wanted to go to Hogwarts, its where both my parents went.”

“Why didn’t you?” Scorpius head dropped, and he started fiddling with his hands as though they were the most interesting thing in the world.

“It’s not a nice story.” His voice had gone thick with emotion, and he swallowed what Albus could only imagine being a lump in his throat. Albus leaned over and placed a hand on Scorpius’ knee, hoping he wasn’t being too forward. Scorpius glanced at his hand before looking back up to Albus. “I suppose you probably know anyway. After the Battle of Hogwarts, my dad fled to France whilst my grandparents fled to Ireland, I’ve never met them. My mother then moved to France on an apprenticeship to do with the French Ministry, she had family there. They met, fell in love, had me, then my mother became too sick to travel,” he paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. Albus stayed silent.

“So, where they planned to move back to London, so I could attend Hogwarts, they could no longer do that, so Beauxbatons it was for me.” He now had tears in his eyes. It didn’t seem like too bad of a story, though Albus did notice he skipped over why his dad fled to France. The answer was obvious, of course, because of the part he played in the war, but all of that was common knowledge. Albus suspected Scorpius was ashamed of his fathers’ past, and Albus couldn’t blame him.

“Am I about to unlock a tragic backstory?” Albus hoped that Scorpius would laugh, and to his relief, he did.

“You have to be level 5 friendship to unlock my tragic backstory, that doesn’t even scrape the surface,” Scorpius grinned at him, his hand naturally falling over where Albus’ was on his knee. Albus had almost, _almost_ forgotten it was there. He felt a course of electricity pass through his veins and slowly pulled away, not taking his eyes off Scorpius.

“What level am I now?” Albus asked quietly. Scorpius considered the question for a moment.

“Well, I’ve never really had any friends and as you’re only the second person to suggest that we are friends, I’ll put you at a 2,” he grinned again, and Albus felt his heart flutter. _Stop_ , he thought to himself. _You cannot like this boy, you’re only being friends with him to spite your family_ , but that was not entirely true. Albus, in the very short time of knowing Scorpius, had already grown quite fond of his new friend.

“Who was your other friend?”

“My ex-boyfriend, it was nothing serious, the kind of relationship you get into at twelve. We lasted maybe a month before he left me for a girl,” there was a hint of satire to his voice. “Broke my heart, he did,” he spoke, quivering his bottom lip. Albus grinned and Scorpius couldn’t keep his façade much longer and both the boys fell into a fit of laughter.

“Are you always this dramatic?”

“ _Au contraire,”_ he spoke, his accent thick as he pulled off a perfect pronunciation. Albus probably shouldn’t have looked at stunned as he did. From his little knowledge of French, however, he was pretty sure Scorpius was denying his dramatic nature. Albus rolled his eyes.

“Are you fluent?” He asked now. Scorpius nodded.

“You don’t live in France the first thirteen years of your life and not become fluent in the language. Of course, English was my first language and my English accent has thickened out when we moved here, but yeah, French is almost second nature to me,” Albus found that extremely sexy, and had to force his eyes away from the grinning boy. _Stop_ ¸ Albus told himself again.

The rest of the train ride was spent just like the first half an hour had been. Scorpius and Albus delved deep into their newfound friendship, smiling and laughing at each other. They had a similar sense of humour, and things with Scorpius seemed easy and right. Before, Albus had always had to force his friendships – even those with his family – but he didn’t have to with Scorpius, he always seemed to know the right thing to say. They steered away from talk of their families mostly, both the boys noticing how uncomfortable the other got when they got too close to that territory for comfort.

When they pulled up to the station both boys waited until most the train had been emptied, mostly because Scorpius had already been subject to bullying within the first five minutes of being on the train and Albus was always subject to bullying since he started here five years ago. Once the train had mostly emptied, the boys – now both in their Slytherin robes – exited the train, their carry’s on in hand. Albus led Scorpius to the carriages that took them up the school. The night had fallen leaving the final few carriages in an eerie manor.

Scorpius dropped his bag on the floor, his eyes widened with horror as he approached the front of the carriage he and Albus were about to get on. Albus was about to ask what he’d been staring at, picking up Scorpius bag off the dirty floor for him and putting both of them on the carriage.

“What is it?” Scorpius asked, his hand now reaching out to the air, his face relaxing from horror to wonder. Albus’ eyes widened as he remembered the terrifying creature – or he thought it was terrifying, but he had only seen it in pictures – that pulled the carriages. Scorpius then looked at Albus, who was probably looking at him like he had seen a ghost. Scorpius’ pale eyes shone in the moonlight, and his face lit up with a grin that reached his eyes as he continued to stroke the Thestral.

“It’s a Thestral, not everyone can see them. I can’t, and my father always hoped I never would.”

“Why can’t you see them?” He said, pulling his hand away from the creature so fast Albus wondered if he had gone to bite him. He backed away suddenly spooked.

“They can only be seen by people who have seen death.” Albus said, fearing what Scorpius’ reaction might be next. To Albus’ surprised he stepped closer to the creature, raising his hand to stroke it again and Albus wished he could see it in that moment, if only to see the relationship they had established in less than a minute. Albus wondered if Scorpius was always this good at making friends, then remembered he stated earlier he’d only had one friend before.

“That must be terribly lonely for you,” Scorpius whispered to the creature, a look of wonder in his eyes. Albus had only heard him due to the eerie quietness surrounding them. Scorpius smiled at something the creature must have done, his eyes flicking back to Albus for a split second and back to the Thestral. Albus smiled at him when Scorpius flicked his eyes to him again and gestured him to come and get in the carriage, climbing up himself.

“Guess you’re unlocking my tragic backstory at friendship level three,” he grinned making his way back over to Albus and climbing into the carriage. Albus noted the fact he’d gone up a whole friendship level since the beginning of the train ride. Albus sat opposite his new friend and stared at him intently.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he said, once again leaning over and placing a hand on his knee. This time Scorpius didn’t acknowledge it. His big, grey eyes were staring down at his shoes and was – once again – awkwardly playing with his fingers and the end of his sleeves.

“No, I want to. You’ll find out eventually anyway. It just, never gets easier,” Albus longed to put his arm around the boy and comfort him until he no longer felt upset. But Albus feared that if he did, he would never let go. “I told you earlier my mum got sick when we were in France and couldn’t travel back to London. Well, it wasn’t that she got sick, more that she got worse. Years and years before she was born, an ancestor of hers was cursed with a blood curse. It showed up again in my mother and there was literally nothing they could do until it killed her. She lived mostly healthy until her mid-teens when the curse first showed up and she had her first spout of illness. It was mostly come and go at that age.

“Anyway, she eventually met my father and they fell in love, it was a sort of tragic love story, the dying girl and the ex-death eater but that never stopped them. The doctors warned my mother off childbirth, said it was possible but would dramatically weaken her, cutting years from her life span. But she didn’t care, she wanted my father to have someone after she died even though my father was content with having the Malfoy line end with him. Anyway, she got pregnant and had me, but as what was foretold, she grew worse and worse.”

Scorpius took a deep breath and Albus watched intently as his beautiful eyes filled with tears behind his thick-rimmed glasses and Scorpius blinked them away rapidly. He noted how incredibly brave he was just for telling Albus this and inside his chest, Albus’ heart ached.

“For the first seven or so years of my life she was ill, but okay,” he continued. “She could walk and do all the things most mothers could with their sons, but after that it got worse and worse. She would have on and off days, days when she couldn’t get out of bed and days when she could. Times when she would spend a week in hospital only for them to tell her they could do nothing. My dad never stopped searching for a cure. On my eleventh birthday when I received both a Hogwarts letter and one from Beauxbatons, I begged them to let me go to Hogwarts, even asked to fly back on a muggle plane so it wouldn’t weaken my mum. Dad never risked it and mum hated seeing me so upset. So, I painted on a smile, moved on and started school.

“Then, in the summer leading up to my third year she grew dramatically ill. The doctors told her it was time and sent her home to die in bed. I sat with her all night, and my dad did. He tried to tell me to leave but I refused, and she wouldn’t let me. I read to her all her favourite books, ones she’d read to me when I was younger to make her feel better.”

Albus noticed now that Scorpius had begun crying and he moved to sit next to him, placing an arm around his shoulder hoping to give him the comfort he needed.

“She died that night,” he continued, his voice now brittle. “I watched her and hoped it was peaceful, but I feared mostly that it wasn’t. I never returned to school, my dad whisked all three of us back to London and buried her in Malfoy Manor, where we now live so it’s just slightly creepy,” he tried to joke, his voice going higher and putting his finger and thumb barely apart to gesture just how ‘slightly’ it was. “Dad shut himself down, he barely spoke to me and if he did it was never about mum, so I guess I hid my feelings to, only letting them out whenever I’d sit with her on her grave.”

Scorpius looked to Albus then and pulled a funny face, wiping his tears from his cheeks with the sleeve of his shirt and tried to smile.

“Look at me, blubbering like an idiot. I’m sorry, you probably don’t want to hear that, it’s pretty depressing and honestly, I’ve never spoken to anyone about it ever, like that is the first time I’ve ever said it out loud in two years. If you ever want to know about how to repress feelings, just look to me,” he pointed his thumbs at each other, trying his best to make a joke out the whole situation but Albus never laughed. He knew too much about repressed feelings and felt more than just sorry for the boy. Instead, Albus said nothing, pulling Scorpius deeper into a hug which he was forever grateful for.

“I know how to repress feelings too,” Albus joked, but then pulled away and making Scorpius look in his eyes. “I’m really sorry about your mum, she sounded like a great person.”

“Thank you, it means a lot.”

“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my mum,” Albus said, his own voice now so thick with emotion he feared he’d start crying himself. The memories of Christmas break came pouring over him. All the arguments, the late nights crying himself to sleep, how much he missed his dad once he’d moved out, and how he would hear his mum crying downstairs in the middle of the night but be too scared to comfort her. The way Lily had crawled up in Albus’ bed on more than one occasion since the announcement and he’d just hold her until she slept. The way James retreated into himself, not saying a word about how he felt but always making sure his siblings were okay. The anger that Albus felt when he found out, the way he looked to his parents with wonder in his eyes because it was mad that two people could love each other that much. Except they didn’t. Not really. They couldn’t have. If true love existed, and they really felt it, then they would never have torn apart their family.

“Uh oh, am I about to unlock a tragic backstory?” Scorpius mocked, noticing Albus’ sudden distant face and nudged his shoulder slightly. Albus smiled only slightly.

“My parents divorced this Christmas,” he said, although he wasn’t sure why. He supposed that he owed Scorpius some honesty about his own family after he had poured his heart out about his mother.

“Shit,” he cursed, and it was the first time Albus had heard him swear and almost laughed because he simply didn’t seem like the type. “That must be really hard for you, Albus.” Scorpius said, and for once he could hear the honesty in his tone. Most people had apologised and said the same thing, but none of them ever actually meant it, it was just something you say to people who are going through shit when you can’t think of anything else to say. But Scorpius actually meant it, and Albus genuinely smiled up at him.

“It is, but I’ll be fine. My little sister is heartbroken though, I want to help her get through this, but I just don’t know how.” Scorpius placed a hand of Albus’ back and started rubbing his hand in a circular motion. Albus wondered if this would look weird to an outsider, if they were being too close considering they’d met not six hours earlier.

“I haven’t known you very long,” Scorpius said, his voice low in the darkness. “But I can tell you love your family, and you’ll get through it, no matter how hard it is.” They met eyes, and Albus repressed the urge to kiss him right then and there. That certainly was too forward.

Albus had always known he was gay from a very young age, and his mother knew it years before he did. However, he had never expected a mysterious blonde-haired boy to come in and make falling in love seem so easy. Because falling in love was never easy, especially because now Albus had a hard time believing it even existed. He put his urges down to infatuation because being sexually attracted to someone didn’t mean love, right?

True love was a load of bullshit – his parents made sure of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Scorp and Al :'( Will update in the next few days xoxo


	3. Kiss Me On The Mouth And Set Me Free

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter three, my angels!
> 
> I was going to update tomorrow but I thought I'd treat ya'll tonight!
> 
> Thank you so much for all the support on this so far, it honestly means the entire world to me!
> 
> As always, kudos and comments welcome!

_10 th January, 2022_

Albus’ belief that love never existed never stopped him staring at Scorpius as often as he could. At the welcome back feast, he watched as his eyes widened with excitement at the food presented before him. He watched as he rambled about how Beauxbatons would never compare to Hogwarts because Hogwarts was simply better. He watched his lips closely when Scorpius leaned in close to him to pick a piece of fluff from his messy, black hair and how they pursed in concentration. He watched him basically bouncing up and down as they made their way to the Slytherin Dorm room after the feast, his face lighting up in wonderment at the passing ghosts and moving portraits. He watched as he rambled about how he’d seen some before, of course, but it never ceased to amaze him. Finally, he watched as he slumped down on the bed beside Albus’ – it was almost a blessing that there were only nine Slytherin boys in their year and it just so happened that the free bed was next to Albus’ – and pulled out a book, putting on his glasses and settled down for a quick read.

Albus could barely take his eyes off him and it was becoming dangerous. Albus, however, didn’t seem to notice how often the other boy looked at him too. Scorpius admired the small moments of excitement Albus had, it wasn’t very often or for very long, but they were there. They were there when the food appeared at the feast and when his sister came to sit with them briefly despite the looks she knew she’d get. Scorpius admired how Albus would fight a war for his siblings and how he knew – even without knowing them – that they would slay dragons if it meant they were all safe.

Not for the first time, Scorpius longed for his mother and father. He longed for a family he never had the chance to have. He longed for what Albus Severus Potter had and knew in his heart he would never get it. So, he settled for watching from afar.

 

The first week of classes past quickly and as he and Scorpius walked down to potions on the Monday morning the second week began, Albus noted how Scorpius never seemed to have a lack of energy. He could talk for England if he really wanted to. Albus wondered how he never ran out of things to say on more than one occasion but was thankful that he finally had a friend and that he seemed to genuinely like him.

The two, unfortunately for them, had been subject to slight bullying over the first week. It was something that didn’t seem to bother Scorpius and Albus had learnt to shrug it off years ago. Together, it didn’t matter what people wanted to say because they both knew it wasn’t true and that was that. However, walking to Potions class that morning, they had been cornered by two older Gryffindors – James’ friends, unfortunately – and Albus finally watched Scorpius lose his cool. He found it incredibly attractive.

“Hey, Potter,” a slimy voice spat. Albus recognised it instantly, the infamous Macaulay McLaggen. Macauley was notoriously known for his arrogant, selfish, bitter and frankly shitty ways. He was no stranger to bullying and hexing students – as he did to Scorpius that day on the train – simply because he was a sociopathic loser who had no better way to spend his time. Albus wondered over and over what possessed James to befriend him. Albus also knew of his father, Cormac, who had spent his time at Hogwarts being the same self-obsessed egotistical shitbag that clearly Macauley had inherited. Albus hated him, and for good reason. But, he simply rolled his eyes, spun on his heels and forced a big fat fake smile on his face and he greeted him.

“Macauley,” he stated, not even acknowledging Dean Flint snarking beside him, eyeing up Scorpius like he was a piece of meat. If Scorpius felt threatened he didn’t show it, there was a fire to his eyes that Albus hadn’t seen until now. He looked entirely different from the geeky boy on the train who ran from a trip-jinx.

“You know, it’s really a shame that you’ve found yourself associating with a Malfoy – if you could even call him that,” he sneered at Scorpius, who never flinched. “But, then again, you’re already the family disappointment, aren’t you? Son of Harry Potter who can’t even cast a good summoning spell without fucking up.” Albus was simply going to roll his eyes and ignore him, going to grab Scorpius’ arm and pull him away when he whispered something under his breath.

“ _Flipendo,_ ” he muttered, glaring at Macauley who immediately flew back against the wall. Albus looked to see Scorpius hadn’t even raised his wand, it was still in the pocket of his robe and Albus stared at him in disbelief. As did the two seventh-year Gryffindors as soon as Dean helped Macauley up. Without responding, not even so much as a snicker, the two took off quickly down the hall.

“Bastards,” Scorpius muttered, turning back to Albus and his face instantly softened, breaking out into a small smile. Albus was sure he’d look like he’d seen a ghost. He knew many witches and wizards could do wandless magic and had only ever met one, his Aunt Hermione, but he had never met anyone else – especially a teenager. Not even his father could perform wandless magic, only the best could. It also took a lot of hard-work and practice, and for a moment Albus was slightly scared of the boy leaning over him. Then he smiled a big toothy grin and Albus realised he had nothing to be scared about.

“Did you just do wandless magic?” Albus asked in disbelief.

“Oh, yeah,” Scorpius shrugged as though it was no big deal. Albus could no longer resist his temptations. He pulled Scorpius aside by the front of his robe, down a particularly narrow hallway suitable for hiding.

“You just stood up for me.” Albus stated simply once he turned to face Scorpius.

“Oh, yeah well, they were being really mean, and I didn’t like it. It’s about time someone stood up to them.” Albus looked at the boy in shock, trying to absorb his entire face with his eyes. The way his cheeks had flushed slightly, which Albus had hoped was because of him and how close they were. The way his eyes settled on Albus’ and never moved, apart from one time when they drifted to his lips. Albus could only hope that was he was about to do wouldn’t ruin the one friendship he had at this stupid school, but he was adamant Scorpius felt the same.

“No one’s ever done that for me before,” he admitted. Before Scorpius could reply, Albus slammed his body into his, forcing Scorpius against the wall and connected their lips. Scorpius, taken aback at first, quickly resolved himself and started kissing Albus back. He was actually kissing him back. Scorpius’ lips tasted like peppermint and cherry Chapstick, one he always had to put on in the colder months, he’d told Albus one night, because his lips get ridiculously chapped. Albus found it endearing.

It was Albus who pulled away first, but only so he could catch his breath. He looked up at Scorpius – who was annoyingly slightly taller than him – and took in the stunned look on his face. For a moment, only a small moment, Albus thought Scorpius hated the entire thing. But then he couldn’t have, because he kissed him back and surely felt the same overwhelming feeling of warmth and happiness that Albus did.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Scorpius eventually said, breaking the previous quiet that was only filled with their ragged breaths. Albus laughed and placed his head on his chest. It’s fair to say they were a little late to Potions.

 

* * *

 

_4 th February 2022._

The kissing never stopped, only intensified. It happened in small corridors and broom closets, empty classrooms and the occasional bathroom. They never kissed in the dorm but always looked over to each other like they wanted to. They never spoke about it either. They were just two friends who liked kissing as far as Albus was concerned.

Over the next few weeks, Albus dramatically improved in both charms and DADA with the help of his new-found friend. Scorpius would sit with him for hours helping him study and practice, rewarding him with a kiss each time he finally did something right. He would count all the rewards ready for later when they were in solitude.

“Al, for the last time, loosen your wrist,” Scorpius huffed at him, he was getting irritated. And when Scorpius got irritated he did this adorable scrunch with his nose that made Albus want to irritate him more often. Albus sighed and looked to Scorpius. He was sitting crossed legged on the sofa facing Albus, who sat like any normal person would on a sofa. He had noted that Scorpius could never sit anywhere like a normal person, he would always have his legs in some elaborate position which never looked comfortable, especially when he was reading.

“I am loosening my wrist!” He proclaimed, trying to emphasise how loose his wrist was by shaking it. Scorpius leaned over and grabbed his wrist, adjusting his wand in his hand so Albus’ grip wasn’t so tight and then followed the wand movement using Albus’ hand and wrist. He had to admit it did feel better.

“Now try like I just showed you, it’s not a harsh movement, it’s delicate.” Scorpius stated, letting go of Albus’ wrist and sitting back to where he was before.

“You don’t even use a wand for this spell,” Scorpius scoffed next to him and Albus had to sneak a glance at his adorable face with his nose scrunched up. It really wasn’t fair for someone to be as cute as Scorpius was.

“But I still had to learn it first, wandless magic comes after. Now try!” He said, gesturing wildly at his wand then at the book he was trying to summon. Albus rolled his eyes and turned to focus on the book. Scorpius had told him previously that it was no use just saying the words, that he had to picture it in his mind. Unfortunately, Albus had a rubbish imagination. But he tried anyway, staring at the book and imagining it flying into his hands.

“ _Accio,_ ” he spoke with determination, picturing the book over and over. The book in question shook slightly before flying towards Albus. It was such a shock that he almost didn’t catch it. “It worked!” He exclaimed, holding the book in the air between him and Scorpius, who shared an equally ecstatic grin. Albus practically jumped on Scorpius, engulfing the boy in a hug and pressing a sloppy kiss to his lips when Scorpius pulled away, shocked. Albus noticed his eyes dart around the common room and relax when he realised no one was there. Albus quickly sat back down.

“That was incredible, I’m so proud of you,” Scorpius finally said, placing a hand on Albus’ and squeezing slightly. Albus’ heart was still beating fast. How could he have been so stupid to just kiss him where anyone could have been watching?

“I’m sorry, that was stupid of me,” Albus spoke in a whisper, looking down at where Scorpius’ hand rested on his.

“Actually, Albus, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” he replied, and Albus thought that he would end everything right there and then. Tell him that he didn’t want to kiss him anymore, he just wanted to be friends. If it wasn’t for Scorpius’ hand on his he was almost sure he would have run from there by now. “Albus, look at me, please?” And he did, because he could never resist anything the boy said.

“What is it? Is it too much?”

“No, no, definitely not,” this time it was Scorpius’ turn to drop his head. “Actually, I was w-wondering i-if,” he was a bumbling mess, the same bumbling mess Albus first saw on the train. He noticed Scorpius only really stuttered when he was nervous, any other time his words flowed eloquently. Albus used his free hand to put it under Scorpius’ chin and lift his head to meet Albus’ eyes. He gave an encouraging smile. “If maybe we could,” he stopped again, choosing his words. “If you wantedtobemyboyfriend?” He stumbled out, tripping over his own words. He spoke so fast that Albus barely caught what he said.

Albus looked back in shock. It certainly wasn’t what he expected him to say. But Albus found himself wanting to say yes. So, he did.

“Yeah, okay,” he spoke as casually as he could. “So, how do we do this?” Scorpius shrugged.

“We don’t necessarily have to announce it, we both don’t have any friends, but we just start being like this out there,” he gestured to outside the common room. “We’ll keep our dorms out of bounds, so we don’t make the other boys feel uncomfortable but anywhere else we shouldn’t feel afraid to be ourselves.”

“What about my siblings? And cousins? And our parents?”

“We tell them unless you don’t want to. I don’t particularly want to be a secret but if you’re not out then that’s fine.”

“No, I am out. It’s fine, we’ll tell my siblings and the news will get to my cousins eventually and as for my parents, I’ll send an owl letting them know I’m dating someone,” Scorpius nodded at this response. Then suddenly his face dropped.

“Will you tell them who?” His voice turned brittle and he looked as if he was about to cry. Albus had learned that Scorpius was no stranger to his emotions. He wore his heart on his sleeve, something Albus was trying to do more often since meeting him.

“Of course, I will, I’m not ashamed of you, Scorp.” At that, Scorpius smiled and Albus let out a breath. So, his parents might not like the fact that he was dating a Malfoy, but Albus had made it perfectly clear when he came out that they would never be able to have a say in who he dated. Mr. Potter, after all, had his fair share of enemies. He had almost stopped James from dating Gregory Goyle’s daughter, then stopped once he realised it only lasted a month.

“Your parents won’t like it,” he said, looking down again, ashamed of himself. Albus hated when he did that, when he became ashamed of where he came from. The Malfoy family name was certainly not a good one, but Scorpius was the rare exception. Even his father, who Albus had met last week when he came to make sure Scorpius was settling in, was not the same man his father described in the stories. The Malfoy’s had changed and Albus suspected it was because of a brave and fearless woman named Astoria Greengrass. She really had a great effect on people, Scorpius really was her son.

“Screw what they like.” Albus said and again Scorpius smiled. “You’re not your father, or your grandfather or anyone else associated with your name, just like Sirius Black wasn’t his family, or your mum wasn’t hers.” Albus watched Scorpius flinch slightly at the sound of his mum and Albus instantly regretted bringing her up.

“So, there’s a few good people that escaped from a lot of bad people,” Scorpius rolled his eyes. “Their names were still held over them.”

“Yeah, but my dad never saw Sirius as a Black, cousin to Bellatrix Lestrange, he saw him as his godfather and I’m sure with enough convincing he’ll see you as…” he trailed off. “Well, as my boyfriend,” both the boys grinned. “Not as your father.” Scorpius’ smile grew wider – if that was even possible.

“Thanks, Albus,” and he leaned forward to press a small kiss on his lips. It was nothing like the ones they usually shared, but it seemed to mean to so much more because this one was out in the open for all to see – not that anyone was around – but they were really doing this. He was in a real relationship and Albus weren’t entirely sure how he felt about it. He liked Scorpius, he really did, but the overwhelming crushing thought that love didn’t exist lay heavy on his shoulders. Scorpius clearly didn’t think the same and Albus was terrified he would hurt him one way or another and he didn’t want that. But, he was willing to give whatever this was a shot and so he bit his tongue and smiled at the other boy.

“Now, again!” Scorpius grinned, placing the book back on the table and gesturing for Albus to perform the spell again. He obliged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No slow burn here, my dudes, just love.


	4. I Wish Someone Would Love Me Like They Loved Each Other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter for you!! Wow, we're over halfway done now, I can't believe it! I thoroughly hope you guys are enjoying it and get super excited when you see I've updated!
> 
> I weren't entirely sure if I'd be able to get this up today but here I am!! I read through the chapter and became dramatically unhappy with the ending so I had to add some things into it, however, I hope it is now better! I recently received some criticism on one of my other posts that kind of set my confidence back (no this isn't a pity call) but it did make me re-think this chapter which is why I adjusted it.
> 
> Enjoy my angels! As usual, kudos and comments always welcome!

_3 rd March, 2022._

Albus and Scorpius sat in the great hall together. Albus had one hand playing with the back of Scorpius’ hair, who happened to be face down in a book groaning about how he couldn’t, for once in his life, remember the ingredients of the Draught of Peace potion. Albus had tried to help him as Scorpius had been helping Albus, who was now on track to get an E in both charms and DADA where before he was barely scraping an A.

“So, it’s powdered moonstone, powdered porcupine quills and crushed unicorn horn, and like syrup of he- ha-something?” He asked, sighing at his own mistake, his head bopping up and down with each ingredient, his chin colliding harshly with the book on each movement. Albus cringed every time he got something wrong. It was unlike him to get anything wrong.

“Powdered unicorn horn,” Albus corrected and Scorpius’ head dropped back into the book with a slight groan. “And syrup of hellebore.”

“Right, right,” he said, his accent coming out slightly more French than usual, his voice slightly muffled by the book. “ _J’en ai marre,_ ” he muttered more to himself than Albus, though he still wished he knew what it meant. Judging by the edge to his tone it couldn’t be anything positive. Albus massaged his neck slightly, attempting to relieve the tension.

“Maybe you need a Draught of Peace potion, Scorp,” he spoke fondly, earning a sideways glare from Scorpius that Albus couldn’t help but giggle at. He leaned down and kissed him softly on the side of his head, taking in the smell of Scorpius’ hair as he did.

It had been a month since Albus and Scorpius had claimed their relationship as official and physical affection between the two boys seemed to bother no one. Lily had hugged them both so tightly Albus thought they would break. James clapped him on the back with the biggest toothy grin he could manage and Albus could have sworn there were tears in his eyes. The only person it seemed to bother was his cousin Rose, who, it was weirdly rumoured, was going to ask Scorpius out on a date. Typical of his cousin to go after the person he wanted too. It was just like her. It had been no surprise in third year when Rose started dating a boy that Albus had previously shown interest in. It was also no surprise when that boy said yes, and they dated for nearly a full year, after all his cousin was fiercely pretty. Almost everyone loved her, all but Scorpius who had quite often expressed his dislike of her. At first, he immediately apologised for talking shit about Albus’ cousin, but Albus couldn’t fault what he said – she was an insufferably know-it-all who used people for good grades.

Scorpius wasn’t a nasty person, he was actually far from it, but his cousin had been particularly unpleasant to him on the first day back and where he would normally forgive and forget, she was also horrible to him right up until Albus’ and Scorpius’ relationship had been revealed, since then she'd ignored them altogether. When they found out she had plans to ask Scorpius out, the two couldn’t help but laugh until their sides hurt. Though it was just a rumour and Scorpius promised to never bring it up. He knew the kind of pain people can experience when others believe rumours that aren’t true.

“It’s no use, I’m going to fail,” Scorpius mumbled into his book, his voice slightly muffled from the pages. Albus continued playing with his hair, it was something he found comforted Scorpius quite a lot. It was later revealed that Scorpius’ mother would play with his hair when he got upset or scared, which is why he found so much comfort in such a simple act.

“Scorp, I don’t think you’ve ever failed anything.” Albus said, honestly. Because it was true, Scorpius had been top of his classes at Beauxbatons and had instantly become top at Hogwarts, knocking Rose off her spot there for the last five years. She was not very happy at all. Albus was thrilled. He finally lifted his head and Albus’ hand trailed down his back.

“True,” he said simply. “But what if this is the first time I do fail something? I can’t fail, my dad would actively disown me,” Albus gave him a look. “No, seriously he would! He would be so disappointed because he was always so clever and top of his class, aside from your Aunt Hermione, of course, and he taught me everything he knows and if I fail now he will probably pull me out of school, force me onto the streets and I’ll have to live as a homeless muggle for the rest of my life and-“ Albus blocked out the rest of Scorpius’ rant. He was used to hearing them and knowing he couldn’t provide any encouraging words of wisdom.

“Scorp?” Albus finally spoke, cutting Scorpius off from his long, long ramble. “You’re doing it again.”

“Oh,” he replied, throwing his head back into the book and letting out a loud groan-like scream. People around them turned their heads before realising it was just them causing the scene and immediately turned back to their conversations, most rolling their eyes. He continued massaging the back of Scorpius’ neck when his sister plopped down on the bench opposite them, reaching over to grab some toast of Scorpius’ uneaten plate.

“Lils, what’s up?” Albus greeted, sending her a small smile. He liked when Lily came to eat with them, it made him feel like not all his family hated him. His siblings had been surprisingly supportive of his relationship with Scorpius, Lily was overly excited saying that maybe now he’d believe that love existed.

He didn’t.

His parents, however, weren’t so pleased. Their family owl returned to Albus a couple of days after he sent his letter declaring his relationship with the Malfoy boy, only stating that the three of them will talk about this when he returned home for Easter. Which, to Albus’ dismay, was only four weeks away.

“Do you think Justin Falker will go with me to the Easter dance?” Albus felt Scorpius turn his head slightly to look at Lily but didn’t raise his head from the book. Albus rolled his eyes.

“You’re too young to be dating.” Albus stated, doing his official elderly brother job. In all honesty, he didn’t really care, he knew his little sister and this ‘date’ would be the most innocent date of all time. She was only thirteen, of course. Besides, the beating-up-the-little-sisters-boyfriends was always more of a James move. “Besides, isn’t he in my year?”

“Fourth,” she quickly interjected. “And no, I’m not, Rose was dating at my age,” she objected. Of course she turned to Rose for evidence of her being able to date.

“Ask him then, Lils. I don’t know the guy,” she rolled her eyes at him and Albus chuckled slightly until Lily returned with a giggle. Then suddenly her look turned more serious, a look he didn’t like seeing on his little sister, who was usually always up for a laugh – the Weasley gene hit her hard.

“Mum and dad replied to my owl today, together. Do you think this means they’re back together?” Albus rolled his eyes. He had lost count of the amount of times his little sister had gotten her hopes up about their parents getting back together only for them to come crashing down. He really hated his mum and dad for putting her through this. Albus and James were older, they understood it a little bit more than Lily. It struck him then that Scorpius had only been Lily’s age when he lost his mum and his heart ached for the other boy.

“I doubt it Lils, I think they’re just trying to be friends,” he had to be honest with her, but seeing her shoulders deflate made Albus regret the decision. He hated hurting his sister.

“But you only think that because you don’t believe in love!” Lily exclaimed. Albus’ heart dropped. Scorpius’ head shot up. Albus could feel his boyfriends’ eyes on him. They had, obviously, never declared love for one another. Albus because he didn’t feel it and Scorpius probably because they had only been official for one month. It was definitely too soon for those kind of emotions, but Scorpius still looked incredibly hurt. “Oh.” Was all Lily could say at the reaction.

“You… what?” Scorpius said, his voice hushed. There was no bitterness or anger in it, just questioning. Lily quickly excused herself, running towards the Gryffindor table as fast as she could without being yelled at by any staff members. Albus finally plucked up the courage to look at Scorpius.

“It’s-  I’m… Erm, I don’t,” Albus stopped stuttering out words he knew wouldn’t solve the situation. He couldn’t explain because he didn’t know how to. How could you tell your boyfriend that you never believed you could fall in love with him? It was simply impossible, but the inquisitive look on Scorpius’ face made Albus want to answer. He just couldn’t. The look quickly turned to irritation in Albus’ silence. Albus did the thing he did best: he fled.

“What are we even doing if you don’t believe in love, huh?” He heard footsteps behind him and knew Scorpius was following him. His voice was way too loud and began attracting the attention around him. “What’s the point of this relationship if you could never love me?” Albus stopped before fully exiting, all too aware of the eyes on him. Scorpius finally caught up to him, waiting desperately for an answer. “Is this all a joke to you? Am I a joke to you?”

“No, no, no, Scorp, you’re not.” Albus quickly responded. This wasn’t how he imagined his relationship going. He’d hope that against all odds and his beliefs that Scorpius would prove him wrong and Albus would fall utterly and totally in love. That just hadn’t happened yet. Love was a feeling that grew, it wasn’t something that was just there.

“Then what is it?” He crossed his arms. Albus had seen Scorpius angry before, like when he wandlessly jinxed Macauley McLaggen, but the anger had never been directed at him before and Albus didn’t like it.

“My parents are divorced!” He shouted back, anger bubbling inside him too. “Any hope that true love existed _died_ when their own love died.” He stated, quieter this time but still loud enough to cause Scorpius to wince.

“Died?” Scorpius’ voice cracked and Albus knew right there and then that he had fucked up his vocabulary. “My mother and father loved each other so much.” His voice was quiet but grew stronger with every word. Albus swallowed a lump in his throat, knowing he had messed up and there was nothing he could do to take it back. Scorpius, seemingly unaware of the students watching around them, never broke eye contact with Albus. Albus cursed himself for the growing tears behind Scorpius' beautiful grey eyes, threatening to spill. He would never forgive himself if he was the one who made Scorpius cry this time.

“My mother helped my father become a changed person, a _better_ person based on love.” He was near-shouting now. “Did you know that before her my dad could never produce a Patronus?” It was a rhetorical question. “But then he met my mum and he fell in _love_ and from that feeling alone he could produce a Patronus.” Albus’ heart dropped. “And you know what he produced it into? A scorpion." His voice suddenly turned soft, cracking slightly with emotion. Albus tried to hold back his own tears. "It’s why my name is Scorpius; my mother was a Scorpio and it also happened to be her favourite constellation.” The more Scorpius spoke of his mum, the softer his voice became. Albus considered saying something, anything, an apology or just _something_ , when Scorpius began to speak again.

“He produced a charm based solely on her with only the feeling of _love_ he felt for her. And then she _died,_ Albus.” His voice raised again, shooting the words at Albus like it was his fault. “She died! Leaving my father heartbroken! So terribly heartbroken and he became a different man, a colder one.” Scorpius took a deep breath, desperate to hold back to the tears forming in his eyes. Albus’ heart, once again, dropped. “I…” Albus stood watching as Scorpius stammered trying to form his next words. “I was so scared he wouldn’t be able to live without her.” Scorpius’ voice was quiet as his bottom lip trembled.

“I cried myself to sleep every night _terrified_ I would wake up the next day without a father as well as a mother.” Scorpius was crying now, hot, wet tears falling down his pale cheeks.

“Scorp-” Albus began but Scorpius cut him off before he could continue.

“No! You’re trying to tell me that love doesn’t exist?” Scorpius began to shout again. “Because I’ve seen it! I watched it every single day in my parents and I wished someone would love me like they loved each other, because they only had to look at each other to show their love, you could see it in their eyes. I watched as it broke them both apart, tore them limb from limb but they worked through it because the love they had was deeper than any _damned_ blood curse. So, don’t you _dare_ tell that love doesn’t exist.” Scorpius had a trembling hand pointing at Albus, but even though he was angry the gesture never seemed threatening. “Don’t you fucking dare. My mum deserves better than that."

With that, he left. Albus followed.

Scorpius was taller than Albus so Albus had to run to try and keep up. He shouted his name over and over, but Scorpius never stopped. He never even glanced back. Albus couldn’t shake the look from his memory. The way Scorpius had looked at him - the tears falling faster than a running tap - like he had taken his heart right from his chest and broke it into a million little pieces in front of him. Albus had broken his heart, whether he meant to or not, and that was the last thing he wanted.

“Scorpius!” He tried again, finally catching up with the taller boy and grabbing his arm, forcing him to come to a stop. Scorpius turned to him, but looked at a spot just above Albus' head, refusing to meet his gaze. Albus swallowed the lump in his throat. Neither of the boys said anything for a while, Albus was at a sudden loss for words.

“I thought I could love you,” Scorpius finally spoke, his voice brittle, and Albus looked at him, willing Scorpius to meet his eyes. Eventually he did and Albus tensed at the sight. His eyes, once so bright and beautiful, were now dull and puffy. Like Albus had taken the stars out of them that his mother had previously placed there. If he didn’t regret this argument enough already, he certainly did have after seeing how much it had truly hurt Scorpius. “I thought you could love me, too.”

“I-“

“But you can’t, not if you don’t believe.” Scorpius cut him off. “I’m done, Al. I can’t break my own heart by carrying on with this.” He pulled his arm out of Albus’ grip and walked away. This time, Albus didn’t follow.

Instead, he sat on the floor where he was, pulled his knees to his chest and buried his head and cried. He cried until he could no longer breathe. He cried until his head started pounding. He cried until he poured all the memories of Scorpius walking away from him from his brain. Then he got up and walked to the dorm, missing any classes he had that day and cried some more into his pillow. Scorpius never returned to the dorm that night.

 

* * *

 

 

_4 th March, 2022._

Professor Appleby was a short and stout man with a big, big heart. He watched as most of his students started much, much smaller than him, then grew into bright young witches and wizards, many towering over him by the time they graduated. He had been DADA teacher at Hogwarts now for six years, transferring there from his old school in Italy, where the Professor had grown and gone to school himself. He didn’t like to admit he had favourites, but there was always at least one student that stood out to him in each year.

His favourite student that year came as a surprise. He wasn’t one of the boys he’d watched grow from first year because the student was a transfer from a wizarding school in France. Scorpius Malfoy was a wonder. Two months at Hogwarts and he was already top of his class and every other class according to the gossip among the teachers. He was wonderfully talented and quick-witted, and Professor Appleby had grown quite fond of the Malfoy boy over the past couple of months. He couldn’t even bring himself to give the boy detention when he saw him hex a seventh-year boy for three reasons: the first is that no one knew the Professor had seen the scene occur; the second was that he had done it sticking up for his dear friend; the third was that his wand was tucked away in his pocket and unused. Professor Appleby was shocked more than anything, he had never seen a fifteen-year-old perform wandless magic, and so he decided to take him under his wing and offer extra tutoring in spells taught at N.E.W.T. level, which Scorpius had happily taken. He really was quite the prodigy.

He didn’t, however, expect to see Scorpius half an hour early to class that morning, sitting in his usual seat where he sat with the Potter boy, his head in his hands and soft muffled sobs filling the quiet room. He had been in the Great Hall the day before at breakfast and had witnessed the argument between Scorpius and Albus and honestly, Professor Appleby’s heart broke for the both of them. Young love was always hard.

“Scorpius?” He spoke, softly, to not startle the boy. Scorpius only froze and eventually pulled his head from his hands. Professor Appleby walked over to him, settling down on the stool next to him – he had no idea how students sat comfortably for an hour in these chairs. Scorpius briefly glanced at him, then turned his head to the front of the room. In that quick glance, he noticed his tired eyes and puffy red cheeks, a shocking sight for someone usually so pale.

“What are you doing here so early?” He asked, not wanting to pry for answers so quickly, anyone with an ear had known about the fight. Scorpius wiped all his tears away with his sleeve before turning to look at the Professor, sniffling as he did.

“I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” Professor Appleby said nothing, feeling that Scorpius was not quite done. He wasn’t one for short, cut-to-the-chase answers, another thing Professor Appleby admired about him. “Promise not to tell anyone, Professor?” He and Scorpius had grown fond of each other, and in one of the first meetings, Professor Appleby had promised Scorpius he could always talk to him he if had no one else. He would be his confidant.

“I promise.”

“I spent the night in the Astronomy Tower, looking at the stars and thinking of… my mother. I couldn’t see Albus and I knew he’d be at the dorm so I stayed away and I can’t go to the Great Hall because he’ll be there this morning and honestly I don’t want to be here either because he’ll probably be here too and I don’t want to see him but skipping class just isn’t me and I’d hate to disappoint you.” He stopped his ramble for a short moment. “I don’t know what to do.”

Professor Appleby stood and patted Scorpius on the back in what he hoped would be a comforting gesture from an authoritative figure. He wouldn’t tell anyone that Scorpius had spent the night outside his dorm, he knew the boy obviously needed some time and wouldn’t jeopardise that.

“And you won’t find the answers looking at the stars. What does your heart say?” Professor Appleby walked to his desk, paying as much attention to Scorpius as possible whilst also having to prepare for that mornings class. It was why he had arrived so early himself. He began handing out pieces of parchment on every desk whilst Scorpius pondered his question.

“Do you believe in love, Professor?” He asked instead, either ignoring his question or stepping around it in some way. Teenagers had a funny ability to do that.

“I do. I’ve never met anyone personally, but my parents were high-school sweethearts and are still married to this day. I was always fond of their love.” Scorpius smiled at this and looked at his professor for the first time, gliding round the classroom with his robes flowing behind him.

“High school? Your parents were muggles?”

“Very attentive, aren’t you? Yes, I’m muggle-born. Bit of a shock to them but they loved me nonetheless, were proud, even.” Scorpius smiled a little more, and Professor Appleby worried that it was his first smile in twenty-four hours.

“I want Albus.” He finally said after a brief silence. “You asked what my heart wanted, I want Albus. But, he doesn’t want me.”

“Did he ever tell you that?” Scorpius pondered for a moment then shook his head. “Did he ever tell you he wanted you?” Scorpius nodded. “Then, I think that settles that.” Scorpius looked down at his hands in his lap, fiddling with the ends of his jumper.

“Then, why can’t he love me?” It was far too early in the morning for a conversation like this. Though by the looks of Scorpius, it wasn’t too early for him. After all, how can anything be too early if you never slept the night before?

“Scorpius,” he started, settling down on the stool next to him once again. Scorpius was looking at him this time, a frown etched onto his face, his eyes red and sore from wiping away tears. His cheeks were stained with tear streaks. He definitely had not slept the previous night; Professor Appleby had seen plenty of students show up to classes and examinations running on little to no sleep. “Honestly, Albus is probably just confused. Now, I don’t know the full story, but I do know that there’s only ever been one wizard incapable of love and that was Voldemort,” Scorpius winced at the name. “Even Gellert Grindelwald could love, so I’m pretty sure Albus can too.”

“Maybe it’s me then,” he dropped his head, his tone bitter with self-deprecation. Professor Appleby could have sworn a single tear ran down his face, but Scorpius caught it before it could make it much further.

“It’s not you. Nobody is incapable of being loved.”

“I am. It’s what happens when you’re a Malfoy and people think your dad is Voldemort.” Scorpius paused for a moment, and Professor Appleby could tell he was holding back his tears. He failed. “I was stupid to think Albus was different,” the end of the sentence was so muffled by sobs and heavy breathing that Professor Appleby barely caught what he said.

“Scorpius, the person who will fall in love with you won’t care that you’re a Malfoy or that the media made up a pathetic rumour about your parentage, they’ll care about you. They’ll love you in every way and accept you in every way. Maybe that person will be Albus, maybe it won’t be. I know right now this feels like the end of the world, but it’s not, it’s only the beginning.”

“Thanks, Professor,” he mumbled, wiping the tears away with his sleeve once again. “I’m just going to go to the bathroom, clean up and stuff,” he said, gesturing to his face and let out a forced laugh. Professor Appleby nodded, reminding him not to be too long as class will be starting soon. Upon Scorpius’ return, he looked slightly better. His face was no longer stained with tears, but the puffiness remained around his eyes even though the redness had gone down slightly. Other students filed in behind him, ready to start the morning. Professor Appleby noted Albus’ absence from his class that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY DON'T HATE ME BECAUSE I ALREADY HATE MYSELF ENOUGH! MY POOR BOYS!


	5. The Quiet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter!! I tried to update as fast as possible but unfortunately life sucks and gets in the way! But here it is!! I hope you very much enjoy it and don't hurt too badly for my boys. Honestly, they're breaking my heart.
> 
> The chapter title for this part is inspired by Troye Sivan and his song "The Quiet", so if you want major Scorbus relating to this chapter feels just go listen to that. I cried.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! Kudos and comments welcome as usual, your feedback is really important to me!

_12 th March 2022_

Over a week following the argument between him and Scorpius, Albus had returned to most of his classes. The two boys hadn’t spoken to each other, even in DADA when Professor Appleby refused to let them switch partners, so they mostly worked in silence. Though Albus swore Scorpius almost enjoyed himself during the practical teaching of the _Impedimenta_ jinx. Albus only felt slightly satisfied back.

Overall, it had been Albus’ loneliest week of his life. He hadn’t received or sent any owls to his parents. Lily had sat with him at lunch a few times with a bright smile on her face; normally her smile was contagious. Not this time. James had tried to speak to him a few times, asking if he was alright but Albus couldn’t find it in him to speak, so mostly they just sat in silence. Scorpius was no longer around, and any time Rose tried to speak with him, Albus would shrug her off and storm off. He was never in the mood to deal with Rose. He got up, went to (some of) his classes, ate dinner on the opposite end of the table from Scorpius – that is when Scorpius bothered to show up to meal times – studied in common room – Scorpius had claimed the library – and then went to bed. Scorpius returned well after he went to bed and rose well before he woke up. It broke Albus every time he caught a glimpse at his tired eyes. But he never knew what to say to fix it. Albus had fucked everything up and right now there was nothing he could do about it.

The worst thing is the way Scorpius wouldn’t – or couldn’t – even look at him. He could have dealt with the whole situation better if Scorpius could look him in the eye, or communicate with him, but he couldn’t. Even if he shouted at him, even if he punched him, even if he cried at him, that would have been better nothing. Anything would hurt less than the quiet. The silence was deafening, soul-consuming, overpoweringly black. Albus was left in the dust, alone and lonely, with only the sound of broken trust.

It was Saturday, which meant Albus had a free day. He wasn’t surprised when he woke to see Scorpius’ bed empty and looking almost unslept in. He was surprised, however, to see his father lingering in the doorway. Albus quickly shot up, giving his dad a questioning look. _How did he even get in here?_ He thought.

“Dad?” Albus asked and Harry Potter made his way over to his bed and settled himself on the end of it.

“Hey, bud,” his dad spoke, leaning over and patting Albus on the shoulder. “How you holding up? Lily and James said you’re pretty torn up.” Albus rolled his eyes, of course bloody James and Lily had taken it upon themselves to announce the break-up with his first boyfriend to their parents. He had plucked up so much courage sending the relationship announcement letter to them and was hoping to avoid this part altogether. Albus was hoping to get Scorpius back with him by the time Easter break rolled around in three weeks. It was optimistic and Albus was yet to think of a plan, but he still wanted Scorpius back. Even if it was as just a friend.

“I’m fine, dad.” He muttered, not in the mood to have this conversation. Instinctively, he looked to Scorpius’ bed and found himself wanting the other boy to be there if only as a small bit of comfort. He hated how comfortable he felt around Scorpius. His dad picked up on the small notion, _damn Auror Potter._

“Are you sure? It’s nearly midday and you only ever sleep in when you’re feeling anxious or upset about something.” Once again, _damn Auror Potter._ Albus always thought his dad never paid enough attention to him. Apparently, he had been wrong.

“I really liked him, dad,” Albus admitted, because he realised insisting he was fine would not be getting him out of this conversation. Once again, Albus looked over to Scorpius’ perfectly made bed and wondered, not for the first time, where the boy had been going when he didn’t sleep in his bed. Harry followed his eyes and sighed.

“I’ll admit I wasn’t happy at first to hear you were dating a Malfoy, but Lily insisted he was very nice and different from his father. If Lily likes him then he must be an angel,” Albus laughed. It was true. Lily had always been very protective over her older brothers, often taking a disliking to whoever they were dating or had a crush on until she learnt enough about them to form her own opinion. It was a miracle that she liked Scorpius. But then, who the hell could hate him? Albus found the answer was actually quite a lot of people.

“Lily adores him,” Albus whispered, not making eye contact with his dad. “So do I.” He finished. Again, Harry put his hand on Albus’ shoulder, but kept it there this time rather than patting it and pulling away.

“What’s this I hear about you not believing in love?” Albus fought the urge to roll his eyes. He didn’t want this conversation again, with anyone.

“Have you and mom finalised the divorce yet?” Albus asked, changing the subject. Harry decided to answer, but Albus knew he would find a way back to the previous conversation. _Damn, Auror Potter._

“Not yet. I can’t bring myself to sign the damn papers.” He answered honestly. Albus said nothing. He didn’t really want to talk about his parents’ divorce. They hadn’t quite completed all the paper work, but their relationship was as good as dead. Albus hated it. He wished his parents could love each other as much as Scorpius claimed his parents loved each other. But then, he couldn’t help but wonder what would have become of the Malfoy family if Astoria had lived. Would Astoria and Draco divorce too, supporting Albus’ theories that true love never really existed, or would they have survived the test of time? Albus wanted to believe the latter, but his mind lingered on the former.

Love was a fable. A fairy tale. Something you tell your kids at night to help them sleep better. It was easy to forget about all the darkness in the world if you believed wholly enough in something good. Love conquers all, and all that bullshit.

“I love your mother, you know?” Albus nearly jumped at the voice in the drought of silence. He’d almost forgotten his father was there, wrapped up in his own mind. Albus looked at him and could see the heartbreak in his eyes. They were similar to the eyes that had glared into him a week earlier, ending their relationship.

“Nothing will ever change that. Because, Albus, just because we stopped being together doesn’t mean we stopped loving each other. You don’t just stop loving someone you’ve loved for over twenty years. We may not be _in_ love anymore, but I do love her.”

“Then, what happened?” Albus asked.

“Albus, sometimes mums and dads fall out of love. We could have stayed together for the sake of you, James and Lily, but us fighting all the time was not a good environment for you. So, in this case maybe two homes are better than one. I think you’ll understand better when you love someone.”

“I don’t ever want to love anyone because I never want to see that look in my own eyes,” Albus nearly screamed, gesturing wildly to Harry’s eyes and the pain they carried.

“Al, I get it.” He said, grabbing Albus’ wild arms and holding them with his own. “Falling and being in love is scary. You’re vulnerable when you’re in love and it’s the most terrifying thing. But Al, it’s also the best feeling in the world. The feeling of being free, of spending all the time in the world with the only person who can make you as happy as you are.” Albus deflated. “Me and your mother may have split, but that should never mean that you shouldn’t believe in love. Because love is such a strong emotion, everyone, even you, deserve it.” For the first time in a week, Albus smiled.

“Thanks, dad,” Albus said, and he meant it. Harry patted him on the back, but then pulled him into an awkward sitting down hug. Albus returned it.

“Now, I have to go, duty calls. But, Al, please go back to classes properly, it’ll do you good.” Albus only nodded, suspecting that was the real reason for his surprise visit. Harry gave him a quick kiss on the top of his head, patted his shoulder once more and stalked out the room. Surprisingly, Albus felt a little bit better and had decided to try and win Scorpius back. That was, if Scorpius would ever stop trying his hardest to avoid him.

 

* * *

 

 

_ 17th March 2022. _

Lily Potter was a fierce young woman, that was something Scorpius knew from the very first moment he met her. Her eyes weighed in on him, analysing him like they could reveal all of his darkest secrets. She was unnerving and courageous and loyal, but she had a heart of gold. Scorpius admired her for were quick wit and the way she always walked with her head held high, he was actually very fond of his ex-boyfriends’ little sister. She was all of these amazing things, but when she sat down opposite him in the Great Hall that morning, she looked exhausted and worn-down, and Scorpius’ heart broke a little bit.

“What’s going on with you and Al?” She asked by way of greeting. Scorpius looked up from the book he had only half been reading and met eyes with her tired ones. He had never seen her like this before, she was always so put together. Scorpius sighed and closed the book. He hadn’t spoken to her since the fight, he actually hadn’t spoken to anyone besides Professor Appleby and Madame Pomfrey, who gave him a potion for his consistent excruciating headache. The potion barely touched it.

“We had a fight, broke up and now we don’t speak,” Scorpius said with a nonchalant shrug. He tried to make it sound like it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world, when, in reality, it was. Lily rolled her eyes. “What’s wrong?” Scorpius asked before she could push any further.

“Nothing, I’m fine.” It must be a Potter thing to lie about how they feel. Albus was the worst for it.

“Please, I know what eyes look like when they’ve been crying, I’m not blind, Lily,” she sighed and looked down at her hands. He had definitely never seen her like this. She was so deflated. Scorpius could instantly see the resemblance between her and Albus. Looks wise they were so different, Albus had inherited the Potter gene of black messy hair and green eyes, whereas Lily was a Weasley through and through with her red hair, brown eyes and freckles dotted over her face. She looked exactly like her mother had at her age.

“I don’t like seeing Albus upset.” She admitted, and Scorpius really didn’t want to have this conversation. He hated seeing Albus upset too, especially knowing it was all his fault. He’d broken up with him, breaking his own heart in the process. Scorpius couldn’t help but think what would have happened if he heard Albus out, but he barely gave him the chance to speak. He would try and fix it, but there was no point if Albus believed he couldn’t love him. He couldn’t break his own heart, no matter how much he wanted Albus back.

“He’s not talking to me and he always talks to me.” Scorpius sighed, fighting hard to repress the tears he felt when looking at Lily so upset. This was the last thing he wanted. He leaned over and put a hand over Lilys’.

“I’m sorry, Lily. I hate that I did this to you-“

“No, Scorpius, you didn’t,” she quickly interjected before Scorpius could continue his apology. “It’s not your fault, I know that it’s Albus’. I just wanted someone to talk to about this because James’ just shrugged at me when I brought it up.” Scorpius felt a slight twinge of dislike towards James in that moment. It wasn’t that he disliked James, in fact he was quite fond of him, but there were little things that irritated Scorpius probably more than they should. He mostly kept his thoughts to himself.

“You can always talk to me. Don’t think that because me and Albus aren’t together that you have to shut me out too. I don’t have any friends and you’re actually the first person around my age I’ve spoken too since…” he trailed off, looking for the right words and swallowing the lump in his throat. Lily squeezed his hand. “Since _that_ and it’s nice to speak to you,” he smiled at her and she smiled back, a big toothy grin that reached her eyes. Scorpius was glad to see the smile return to her face.

“I like speaking to you, too. You’re funny when you’re not sulking,” she laughed, and Scorpius forced a laugh alongside her. However, the smile faded on Scorpius’ face when he saw Albus enter the Great Hall at the other end of the room. He had been doing his best to avoid the other boy, but unfortunately, he had no choice but to see him in classes. They hadn’t spoken, even though both boys desperately wanted to. Lily followed Scorpius’ gaze to the door when Albus locked eyes with him.

“I don’t think he’ll like that we’re speaking.” Scorpius spoke, unable to take his eyes off Albus. Though, Albus didn’t look angry, like he thought he would, he actually looked happy for the first time in two weeks. His usual sulk had been erased from his face and even though he wasn’t smiling, Scorpius thought his features looked slightly more relaxed than they had been. _At least he can move on,_ Scorpius thought bitterly and turned by to Lily, who rolled her eyes and turned back. Maybe two weeks was long enough to stay mad at someone, but Scorpius couldn’t shake the feeling. Maybe it was because he wanted Albus to come crawling back. He wanted, so desperately, to hold him once again. Albus was warm, and Scorpius had felt nothing but cold since letting him go.

“I don’t care what he thinks.” She started poking her spoon around a bowl of porridge that she must have made up when Scorpius wasn’t looking. He looked at his own uneaten plate of eggs and toast and pushed it away from him. He wasn’t hungry. Lily stopped poking and looked up at him. “Do you love him?” She asked, and Scorpius was taken aback slightly. He once again had to swallow the lump in his throat.

He glanced over to Albus who had taken a seat at the other end of the Slytherin table and now had his head in the Daily Prophet, using his free hand to eat his cereal. Scorpius hadn’t wanted to stare, but he had always been so mesmerised by Albus’ ability to look so effortlessly beautiful. His hair was always an unruly mop on his head, but somehow, he managed to make it look good without even trying to tame it. Scorpius liked the way he looked most when he thought no one was looking, when his eyes lit up at something he found funny or interesting, the small smile that always appeared on his lips when he read and the way his nose scrunched when he was disgusted. Scorpius could watch him all day. And that was the problem. He had lost this incredibly amazing guy to save his own heart from breaking.

“I do,” he finally replied, forcing his eyes away from Albus to look at Lily, who had an ever-growing shit-eating grin on her face. _She’s definitely Albus’ sister,_ he thought. “But he can never feel the same about me and I’ve already broken my own heart enough, I’m trying to protect myself from further harm.” Albus had already broken his heart, but Scorpius knew that if Albus asked for him back he would say yes in a heartbeat. That was a dangerous hold to have over someone.

“Believing in love and being in love are two different things. Plus, people can change, Scorpius.”

“Albus either believes that he could never love me, or eventually our love would die out and we’d break up naturally. That’s not a good head to have when in a relationship with someone. I believe in true love and soul mates, Albus doesn’t.”

“But, he was trying for you,” Lily almost sounded desperate now. Scorpius weren’t sure if she was trying to convince him or herself. Scorpius looked at Albus again, who was glancing around the room. His eyes settled on Scorpius for a split second before he quickly pulled his gaze away. Scorpius sighed and turned back to Lily.

“He wouldn’t have given up so easily if he was really trying so hard,” she sighed now too and dropped her head.

“You have a point. All I’m saying is maybe you shouldn’t throw this away just yet. You just admitted you loved him, that’s got to count for something.” Scorpius smiled a sad smile at Lily.

“Maybe it does.” The conversation seemed to end there. Lily went back to eating her porridge, so Scorpius returned to his book. They sat in silence, not an uncomfortable one, a nice one. Scorpius was thankful that Lily was still talking to him, even trying to make him feel better, it was a pleasant surprise. Everyone else at Hogwarts hadn’t been as nice. Just that morning he had been shoved and pushed against a wall on the way to breakfast before the students carried on walking. It was really unnecessary, Scorpius hadn’t even been in their way. He just moved on and pretended it never bothered him.

“So, you going to the Easter ball?” Scorpius scoffed at Lily’s ridiculous question. He had almost forgotten the dance was taking place in less than two weeks. He looked at her, then dramatically looked around him, gesturing wildly with his arms.

“Yeah, because I have mountains of people wanting to go with me,” he joked, sarcasm thick in his voice. Lily laughed and rolled her eyes. “No, I’m not,” he said seriously this time. “Me and Albus were supposed to be going together, but that’s obviously not happening anymore.” He sighed.

“Come with me and Justin,” Lily asked, as though third-wheeling a couple of third years was exactly how Scorpius wanted to spend his evening.

“You asked him then?” Scorpius said, recalling the conversation, the one that happened before the disastrous argument.

“He actually asked me. But seriously, Scorp, you can’t miss your first Hogwarts dance.” _Scorp._ Only Albus had ever called him that. He felt a pang in his chest and the overwhelming urge to cry. How had things gone so wrong so fast? He wanted to fix them but then it wasn’t his mess to fix. Albus hurt him, Albus broke his heart not the other way around. But, he longed for Albus to confront him, to apologise and ask for him back. Scorpius would say yes simply because he wanted him so bad.

“I’ll think about it,” Lily seemed satisfied with this answer because she smiled and finished her breakfast. She quickly wished him a goodbye, getting up and running away to the Gryffindor table. She always seemed to be on the move. But, Scorpius was content that she was back to how she was before, happier, fiercer, determined. Lily Potter deserved all the happiness in the world.

Scorpius packed up his things himself, he had a Potions class to get to. He quickly glanced to where Albus was sitting only to notice he had already left for class. Scorpius’ heart panged at the thought of having to share a desk with him. Professor Wing had been another teacher who refused to let Albus and Scorpius switch partners, which meant they were stuck together for the rest of the year. Albus had missed last weeks’ potions class, but Scorpius knew he would be there today and considered skipping himself, but that just wasn’t Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.

He gathered his things and left the Great Hall, making his way down to the dungeons where the potions classroom was. The walk was quite a long one, which gave Scorpius some time to reflect, even though he’d been doing plenty of that recently. He thought about the dance, that yes, he was supposed to be going with Albus, but that plan had long changed. Could he still go? Part of him wanted to, longing for the feeling of fitting in with other students, but he knew he wouldn’t be wanted there.

Then, of course, there was the thought that Albus might be there, too, which made him both want to go and not go at the same time. But then Albus was just like him, and would probably stay back too, which meant a night of being in the dorm alone with his ex-boyfriend and he didn’t want that. But then again, he could spend the night in the Astronomy Tower, which is where he went most nights if he couldn’t sleep. Overall, Scorpius had a big predicament.

He took in a deep breath before entering the potions classroom. It was already half full of students despite there being five minutes till class started. Professor Wing sat at her desk, scribbling away at a piece of parchment. Scorpius took his seat next to Albus, careful not to look at him. He got out his potions book, a piece of parchment and his ink and quill. He opened the book to the page number written on the board at the front and silently cursed when he saw what chapter that was. Amortentia. A love potion.

Fuck.

He took a quick glance at Albus, who either hadn’t seen him sit down or was just completely ignoring him. The previous tension had returned to his face, and Scorpius guessed it was because of his presence. He looked back at the book and began reading the chapter. It was nothing he hadn’t read before.

“Alright class, today we’re going to brew Amortentia, can anyone tell me what that is?” The class was silent. Scorpius kept his head down, adjusting his glasses every time they fell down his nose. He was normally quite vocal, but right now he wished he had listened to his past self and skipped the class, maybe then his heart wouldn’t be beating so loudly in his ear. “Scorpius?” His head shot up at the sound of his name and he met Professor Wings eye.

Professor Wing was a tall woman and a fairly new teacher at Hogwarts. She was on her second year as potions teacher and first year as Head of Hufflepuff house. Most students liked her and many more fancied her. Scorpius could see why, she was rather pretty, her eyes covered in smoky eyeshadow which brought out the blue in them, and she was much younger than many of the other teachers at Hogwarts. Most the time people only took her class because they liked the look off her, not because they wanted to learn potions.

“Hmm?” He replied, unsure as to why she said his name.

“You’re unusually quiet.” Scorpius shrugged, and a couple of people laughed around him. Albus’ eyes were burning holes into the side of his face, Scorpius refused to break contact with the Professor to look back. He began fiddling with the corner of a page in his Potions book, looking for something to distract his shaking hands. “Amortentia, what do you know?” She questioned again. Scorpius sighed, of course she would pick on him.

“It’s a love potion, a particularly strong one,” he started, receiving a nod of approval from Professor Wing. “It’s actually the strongest love potion in the world.” She smiled at that. “It, erm- it smells like, erm,” Scorpius cursed himself for stuttering this next part, but he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like Professor Wing was asking him to smell the potion and reveal his love for Albus. “It’s smells different to each individual depending on what attracts them,” he finally managed and Albus finally looked away from him and Professor Wing smiled.

“Correct. For example,” she said, walking to the cauldron at the front of the room and stopping before it. She leaned down and took a whiff of it. “I smell my wife’s perfume, Honeydukes chocolate and Chamomile tea.” She looked back up to the students. “You are going to brew it, perfectly, with your partner. Turn to page 64 in your books and get started, your ingredients are at the front. Happy cooking.” She said and turned to sit at her desk.

Scorpius was about to rise to get the ingredients when Albus beat him to it, so Scorpius sat back down. Albus returned a few moment later with all the equipment and ingredients needed and set them down in front of them.

The two worked together mostly in silence but completely in sync. The only words muttered between them was if they needed a particular ingredient, or if the other had stirred the cauldron one time too little. Other than that, they seemed to fit together like pieces in a puzzle. Before Albus had even asked for Pearl Dust, Scorpius was handing it to him, or before Scorpius was about to ask how many times to stir it, Albus muttered the number to him. Under any other circumstances, it would have been the perfect working environment.

However, neither of the boys noticed when the others gaze lingered too long. Or how they would blush when their hands touched accidentally reaching for the same ingredient. Scorpius didn’t think Albus noticed when he put his hand on his arm to reach over for the Rose Thorns and left it there for a second too long just because it was so nice to touch him again. Scorpius didn’t think Albus noticed, but he did. And he didn’t mind it. Albus’ heart wrenched when he pulled away, leaving the spot cold and craving more.

The stupid sloppy grin on Scorpius’ face when the potion was brewed to perfection was the first one Albus had seen him pull since the breakup and it took everything in him not to kiss him in that moment. Albus hated, _hated,_ how badly he hurt Scorpius. It had never occurred to him that he would be hurting Scorpius when he refused to believe in love, he had just so badly craved the attention the other boy gave him that he never took his feelings into account when Albus inevitably messed everything up. It was his biggest regret, but he still hadn’t found a way to make it up to him. He didn’t think he ever could, after all, he still didn’t believe love existed.

Maybe if he took a love potion he’d begin to believe.

Maybe if he took this particular love potion.

Albus leaned over, examining the potion, his mind running away with him about the possibility of taking it. He could feel Scorpius’ eyes on him, the grin now vacant from his lips, so to avoid him he closed his own eyes and leaned further in. He inhaled deep, allowing the aroma to fill his senses, coursing through his body and choking his lungs. He had never expected to be able to put a person to the smell, but when he smelt cherry Chapstick, Pepper Imps, the musty smell of an old book and honey shampoo, he felt home.

Then it hit him.

With a quick gasp, Albus stumbled back, falling over the stool he’d been half sitting on and nearly collapsing to the ground. He managed to stay afoot. Scorpius looked at him with wild eyes, bewilderment written on his face and chewing his bottom lip. His lips, so often coated in cherry Chapstick this time of the year. The smell continued to linger around Albus’ nose, he could almost taste it. He could almost taste Scorpius’ lips, and how desperately he wanted to again. He wanted to breathe in the scent of his honey shampoo whilst they shared a cuddle before bed or hold his hand that always slightly smelled like an old book because Scorpius rarely went anywhere without a book. He wanted to hold him again, he wanted to love him and to be loved.

But love is nothing but a potion.

The smell is nothing but a potion.

The dream of having Scorpius back was nothing but a potion.

Albus ran out the class.

 

Scorpius stared after Albus, unsure whether to follow him or not. He looked terrified when he looked at Scorpius and he couldn’t figure out why. Did the potion confirm everything? Did he not smell anything because he didn’t believe love existed, even if it was in a temporary liquid form? Or did he smell something and realise love did exist and it scared him?

He never came back despite Professor Wings protests. Scorpius was quite amazed when he managed to talk her out of giving him yet another detention when showing her how well they had brewed the potion together. She was so impressed she forgot he ran out of class. Scorpius found himself wondering why he was trying to protect the boy who broke his heart.

Maybe it was because when he took a deep inhale of the love potion, he smelt blueberry bubble-gum – it was Albus’ favourite and he had indulged on so much of it at their last Hogsmeade trip that his lips tasted like blueberry for a week. He smelt the faint scent of the spring air after it had been raining – Albus had dragged Scorpius to the courtyard on more than one occasion to smell the air after it had rained and though Scorpius could never quite understand it, Albus loved it, so he did too. He smelt vanilla shampoo – it was the only kind Albus could use that wouldn’t make his hair wilder than usual and Scorpius would often nuzzle his nose into his hair and smell it during a late-night cuddle session. He smelt the fire burning, nostalgic of the nights they’d sit in front of the common room fire reciting spells and historical facts. The potion had smelt like home if home could be a person.

Scorpius felt sick with nostalgia. He felt sick knowing that the love potion smelt like Albus, but Albus would never have smelt him back.

Scorpius went to Madame Pomfrey that night requesting a Pepperup potion for the nausea and headache that lingered for the rest of the day. It was so bad he hadn’t eaten dinner that evening, not that he had been eating well. Heartbreak can do a lot to a person, he’d witnessed it first hand with his dad and now was feeling it himself. He asked for a sleeping draught and trudged his way back to the dorm room.

When he arrived, the curtains around Albus’ bed were closed, and Scorpius was thankful for it, knowing he couldn’t bare face him. It was getting late, so Scorpius changed and got into bed, wrapping himself up in the blanket to protect him from the cold. He took the remains of the sleeping draught and settled on his pillow. He cried until the potion took effect, dragging him into the darkness of a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, these boys are breaking my heart.
> 
> Stay tuned for the next chapter within the next few days!


	6. Voldemort's Son and a Psycho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CAN YOU BELIEVE WE'RE NEARLY FINISHED??? Wow, I can't. 
> 
> Thank you so much for your support! This chapter hasn't been beta'd (tbf none of them have lol) so I apologise for any mistakes because I'm severely sleep deprived and very very sick and I was going to upload last night but when I was proof reading none of it makes sense, so lets hope I fixed that (insert laughy-crying emoji here).
> 
> If you've been crying at the past two chapters, then you might want to get the tissues back out. Once again, I'm sorry!!
> 
> ENJOY! Kudos and comments always welcome.

_17 th march, 2022._

 

_It smelled like him. Why did it have to smell like him?_

_Love wasn’t real._

_Love didn’t – no, couldn’t – exist._

_If it did, his parents would still be together._

_If it did, he and Scorpius would still be together._

Albus collided harshly with a pair of black and red robes causing all the books he grabbed in a hurry to tumble out of his hands. It was his fault, he hadn’t been looking where he was going, but that didn’t stop him from shouting a colourful word at the other boy before looking up and meeting eyes with his older brother.

James had always been different to Albus. Where Albus’ shaggy, black, Potter-like hair and green eyes made him look annoyingly like his father, James had inherited neat brown hair from somewhere – no doubt somewhere down the Weasley line – that shone with a hint of red in the sun, and brown eyes - like their mother - speckled with dots of green inherited from their father. James was dotted with the famous Weasley freckles, whereas Albus’ skin was clear as the sky on a summers day.

“Language, brother,” James disciplined, though Albus couldn’t help but smile at the wicked grin his brother wore.

Albus felt guilty for pushing his brother away over the last few weeks, but James only wanted to talk about how Albus was feeling and that was the last thing Albus wanted to talk about.

“I’m sorry,” Albus blurted out but then he wasn’t sure what he was apologising for. Everything, he guessed. He had been a horrible brother, but right now he felt like he needed James. So, he decided he’d confide in him as James did two years previous when he broke up with his girlfriend. Of course, James was now in a happy and healthy relationship with his new girlfriend, Sarah.

“Al, I was joking abo-”

“Not about the swearing,” Albus admitted, keeping his gaze on the floor as he shuffled from foot to foot. Looking at James whilst saying this would only make it harder. “For being a shitty brother. You’ve been so great and I’ve just been pushing you away, same with Lily, and I’m sorry,” he finally finished, looking up from the floor but looking anywhere besides James’ big brown eyes.

“You’re not a terrible brother, bro. Things have been hard for you, I get it. You’ve never been open about your feelings, I figured this wouldn’t be any different.”

“I’m in trouble, James,” this time, Albus looked at James, whose eyes instantly widened with worry. Albus scrambled to correct himself. “No, no, not actual trouble. Is there somewhere we can talk?” James only nodded and started walking in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, gesturing for Albus to follow. He did.

“Should I be worried?” James asked, the previous mischievous grin disappearing from his face. He looked more like their dad without his signature smirk. It was rare that James dropped his impish behaviour to be serious. The first time he’d seen it properly was that Christmas, when their mum and dad dropped the D-bomb. Albus had seen a lot more of it since then and he hated it.

“Not at all. Someone I know taught me to wear my heart of my sleeve, I’ve kind of neglected that so now I’m trying again.” It was Scorpius who taught him that. Scorpius who was never afraid to show any kind of emotion. Scorpius who had shown Albus that living out loud was so much better. It only broke Albus’ heart more when he’d realised that Scorpius had stopped living his life out loud. He’d stopped wearing his heart on his sleeve. Albus used to be able to see right through Scorpius, would always know how he’s feeling. Now, if Scorpius didn’t want Albus to see, it was hard for him to cut past the cold exterior. Albus had done that to him. Albus had made the bright-glowing star collapse into himself, creating a black-hole of sorrow.

“Good for you, Al,” and even though it sounded sarcastic, Albus knew James meant every word.

They finally reached the Gryffindor common room, which was way too far from the potions classroom in Albus’ opinion. James spoke the password clearly to the Fat Lady who graciously let them in and James led him up to his dorm room, checking they had no company and sitting on his bed. Albus joined him. There was a short silence between them before Albus realised James was waiting for him to speak.

“We did Amortentia in potions today,” Albus started.

“Speaking of which, shouldn't you be in potions?” James interrupted.

“James?”

“Right, sorry, continue.”

“So, this whole thing with Scorpius,” James raised his eyebrows, knowingly, figuring that this would be where the conversation led. “I don’t know what you know, I presume Lily filled you in on the details and you know my beliefs on love.” Albus paused, waiting for James to say something to let him know he was following.

“I do, honestly you’re not entirely misguided. I found myself questioning too, but then I realised I loved Sarah and that felt real, so it must be real.”

“Right, exactly. So, I’m having an existential crisis.” James chuckled, Albus had always had a flare for the dramatic. He never spoke, not wanting to lose Albus by saying the wrong thing, so he gestured with his hands to tell him to continue. “I don’t believe in love, but Scorpius…” he trailed off. “I smelt him, I don’t know what that means.” He finished.

“Albus, it’s okay to be in love. People feel it every day-”

“But I don’t want to be!” He half-shouted, interrupting James who showed no evidence he was startled other than the small jump backwards he did. His face remained unchanged. “Love means being heartbroken. I don’t want my heart to get broken. I don’t want to cry in the middle of night because I lost the one thing that made me happy. I don’t want to fight in front of my future kids over and over about the same thing and feel the other person slipping away and be unable to stop it.”

“Al,” James spoke softly, placing a hand on Albus’ shoulder. Albus had started crying, hot wet tears streaming down his cheeks. But, he felt relieved. Relieved he’s finally been able to express his worries. Relieved he no longer had to bury his feelings. “That’s what you’re scared about?” Albus nodded. “This isn’t about love at all. You have commitment issues, which makes complete sense with divorce and everything. But, Al, you can’t shut people out. People like Scorpius don’t deserve that and I’m not saying this to make you feel bad. Scorpius is such a pure soul, but he’s been so different since you guys broke up. We used to talk and joke around, now he barely looks at me.”

“It’s my fault, not his. I hurt him, and I have never regretted anything so much before in my life. I want him back, James, you have to help me.”

“I will do whatever it takes, you deserve to be happy, Albie.” Albus smiled his first genuine smile in two weeks. Maybe, everything will work out and James was willing to help him. So, they began drawing up a get-Scorpius-and-Albus-back-together plan, and it would be put into motion in less than two weeks at the Easter ball.

 

* * *

 

_22 nd march, 2022_

Charms was easily Scorpius Malfoys least favourite subject for precisely three reasons: the first being that he knew all that was being taught, so overall the lessons were uneventful and un-educational; the second was that Professor Flitwick seemed to have taken a disliking to him for unbeknown reasons; finally, Charms meant Gryffindors and Slytherins were paired together in one of the only classes they shared and Scorpius would always fall victim to their taunts.

The first taunt came before class started when two Gryffindors in his class barged past him, shoving him quite forcibly against the wall causing his glasses to break, again. They carried on, oblivious of where the trip-jinx that collided harshly with the brown-haired boy – Josh, Scorpius thought his name was – came from because when they looked back at Scorpius, his wand was in his pocket. No one knew Scorpius could perform wandless magic accept Albus, McLaggen, his friend and some of the Professors. Though, Scorpius didn’t often retaliate to the bullies, whenever he was on edge, he often found himself doing so. This feeling often came of sleepless nights and restless days, sending him spiralling to the edge of a cliff he hadn’t visited in years.

The rest of the taunts came in class. Scorpius tried his best to keep his head down in his charms book, mostly trying to block out the whispers around him. It happened every class and Albus used to shut everyone up, but now Scorpius was forced to fend for himself and everyone knew it. It’s fair to say he tried his best to avoid confrontation, but on this particular day, Scorpius felt ready to fight anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way. He was way too tired for this.

“Hey, Malfoy!” A whisper came from behind him. Professor Flitwick was over the other side of the classroom helping Albus, Rose and her friend Polly. Scorpius rolled his eyes and turned around, all too aware of Albus’ eyes on him from the other side of the room. He had moved there after the break-up and Scorpius was only half-glad of it. He was relieved to not have to sit next to him and try to pretend that everything was okay, and his life weren’t falling apart, but also he longed for his presence and comfort, his warmth and his smell.

“What?” He spat, meeting eyes with Josh, the brown-haired Gryffindor he had secretly trip-jinxed in the corridor. That was the thing about Scorpius, no one ever saw him as a threat.

“Just your daily reminder that your family are the scum of the Earth and should be rotting in Azkaban.” Scorpius tried to swallow back the lump in his throat and force away the tears forming in his eyes. His father had done bad things, but he did not deserve Azkaban, and his mother was truly the kindest woman he’d ever met, it hurt Scorpius that they’d even consider putting her on the same level as the rest of his family. “I can’t believe they actually let a Malfoy into this school,” the boy said, more to his friend now than to Scorpius, but he made sure he was listening. “My poor mother was so appalled she nearly pulled me out.” Scorpius’ face twitched with anger, something he’d been feeling a lot more recently. “I mean, your dad conspired with you-know-who,” he had turned his attention back to the blonde-haired Slytherin. “They should never have let him get away with it, and they certainly shouldn’t have let him pro-create. Who wants more of you scum running around, huh? I’d certainly sleep better at night knowing all of you were dead.”

Scorpius stood, fixing his grey eyes on the other boy, a look of disgust plastered on his face. For a moment, the boy actually looked scared, before a big grin appeared on his face. He started laughing, but Scorpius never broke eye contact.

“ _Langlock,”_ he muttered, aiming the jinx directly at the boy. The laughter stopped. Scorpius’ lips turned up slightly at the corners, satisfied with the look of horror on the boys’ face. Scorpius had jinxed him so his tongue affixed itself to the roof of his mouth. He looked even more frightened when he realised Scorpius’ wand wasn’t in his hand. The boy next to him was half-way to calling Professor Flitwick when Scorpius drew his wand and cast a silencing charm on him, not breaking eye-contact with his jinx victim.

“This is your daily reminder,” Scorpius said, leaning closer to the boy and not breaking eye contact. He was fully aware that people around him had started observing the situation and chattering about it, Scorpius didn’t care for once. “That words can hurt people. It’s so much better to stay silent, wouldn’t you agree?” Josh nodded, and Scorpius smiled a wicked grin, narrowing his eyes at him. He cast the counter-curse under his breath and unsilenced the other nosey sod. The two boys never said anything to Scorpius when he’d dropped the jinxes, only stared at him with fear in their eyes. Maybe now they’d finally leave him alone. Maybe now they’d all see that he didn’t need Albus to fight his battles, despite how much he wanted him.

In a rush of adrenaline, Scorpius turned to gather up his books and put them away. The class was far from over, but he could no longer sit there surrounded by people who hated him by nature. For the first time in his life he was going to walk out. He’d deal with the angry letters from his father later. He caught a short glance at Albus on his way out, who was looking at him intently, words spoken by the Professor going in one ear and out the other.

“Voldemort’s son and a psycho,” a Gryffindor shouted after Scorpius. Scorpius stopped at the door for a split moment, debating whether or not to jinx the girl who said it. He decided against it when Professor Flitwick – finally no longer oblivious to the commotion that had been going on around him - began shouting his name and he ran out the classroom. Only then did he let the tears fall. He had surprised himself by how long he’d managed to keep them back. The door to the charms classroom opened and closed behind him, but Scorpius never looked back to see who it was.

Scorpius went to the one place he knew he could be alone. The Quidditch pitch. When he was feeling down and upset, there was always one of two things to do. He’d either watch the stars from the top of the Astronomy tower and think of his mother, wondering if she was out there and if she’d be proud of who he’d become. As it was the middle of the day the stars were not out, so his mother would have to wait. The second and final option was flying. He’d always felt free whilst flying, like no one else in the world could bother him. It was just him, a broom and the wind and it was invigorating.

He dumped his bag at the side of the pitch and summoned his broom. He always stashed it close to the pitch, a place where no one could find it but somewhere he would be able to get hold of it in a moments’ notice. He didn’t trust anyone in his dorm not to destroy it if he stored it there, boys could be horrible when they didn’t like you. His broom flew to his hand and Scorpius mounted it as fast as he could, lifting off into the air and taking a flight, circling the pitch.

It was a particularly warm day, the spring had finally rolled around which meant that the air felt fresher, warmer and happier. Spring was Scorpius’ favourite season for a few reasons: the first was that he liked the warmer days, but summer was too hot; the second is that his mother loved it, she would always take him out on the first warm day of the year and pick a flower that had grown in their garden. They would put that flower in a book and note down the type, the date and the temperature of that day. Scorpius had kept on the tradition even after her death, he never went anywhere without that notebook. The third was that his birthday was in Spring and always fell in Easter break which meant Scorpius could spend it with his parents. Parent.

Scorpius flew higher and higher, kept going up and up and in his mind, he’d be able to reach the sun. It was impossible, but he tried anyway.

The higher he went the more the thoughts raced around his head.

The memories of the bullies, the words they spoke to harm him. The nicknames he’d acquired in only his short stay at Hogwarts. _Voldemort’s son. Psycho. Albus Potters shadow. Weak. A disgrace. Death eater._

He flew higher.

The pain from the bruises of physical bullying throbbed. Being pushed against the wall. Being trip-jinxed. Being punched. Being hexed. Being kicked.

Higher.

 _Albus._ Albus would never be able to love him. _Albus. Albus. Albus._

Higher.

His mother. She was dead. As good as gone. She was never coming back. _She’s gone. She’s gone. She’s gone._

Higher.

Everything was fine.

Higher.

Nothing was fine.

Higher.

The air became thick and Scorpius began struggling to breathe. He took in a deep breath and slowly let himself descend back down to the Quidditch pitch. The air became warmer the closer to the earth he got and fresh air began to fill his lungs again.

Once he was back level with the Quidditch goal holes his breathing had returned to normal. Not quite done with his flight, Scorpius stayed in the air, whizzing around the pitch at a speed that could put a Seeker to shame. Out of the corner of his eye, Scorpius could have sworn he spotted a mop of black hair standing off to the side of the pitch. For a moment, Scorpius lost his focus, flying straight ahead but looking to where the mop ran off to.

Was Albus here? Did he come to see if he was alright after storming out of class? Scorpius’ mind began running away with thoughts of Albus.

He didn’t see the stands coming closer.

He was flying fast and by the time he realised, it had been too late. Trying to deter his broom from flying into the Quidditch stands seemed to do more damage than good. The last thing Scorpius saw was the brown wood of the stands covered in yellow flags, and he let go of his broom to shield his face. Scorpius collided with the wooden stands and fell from his broom, sending the world into a whirlwind of black.

 

* * *

 

“Albus?” Albus could hear Lily’s distinct voice from his dorm room, though he weren’t sure how or why she’d get into the Slytherin common room in the first place. Figuring it was important, Albus tried not to roll his eyes as he clambered out of bed and down to the common room. “Al! Finally,” her eyes were flickered with worry, and for a moment Albus’ heart dropped. Had something happened to James? Or mom or dad?

“Lily, what’s going on? How’d you get in?”

“Not important, Al. Something’s happened,” again her voice quavered, and she looked as if she would cry. Lily rarely let people see her cry apart from James or Albus, it meant that if she started crying in a room full of Slytherin’s then something really was wrong.

“What? Is it James? Is he okay?” Lily couldn’t contain her tears any longer, and she collapsed into Albus’ arms, soaking his school jumper underneath her. His heart pounded in his chest and he tried his best to keep his cool for her.

“It’s not James,” she whimpered and Albus hoped that it wasn’t a boy that made her feel like this. He would kill them because no one messes with his little sister. “It’s Scorpius.”

Albus’ heart dropped.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

If Lily was this upset, then something bad had to have happened to Scorpius and Albus swore he would kill the person who did it. He had noticed that people had been taunting Scorpius a lot more since Albus was no longer at his side. He’d watched when Scorpius jinxed the two Gryffindors in Charms earlier that day and felt proud that he had managed to stand up for himself, despite collapsing into tears as soon as he was out the classroom. Albus followed him out and all the way to the Quidditch pitch with every intention to apologise and ask if he was okay. But when Scorpius spotted him, he lost his nerve and fled, hoping the other boy wouldn’t bring it up next time they saw each other. It had been a few of hours since then, and Albus had noted Scorpius’ absence from the rest of the days classes. That was rare behaviour for him.

“He’s in the hospital wing,” she sobbed again, holding Albus closer and pulling him out of his thoughts. “James is with him now, but he told me to come get you.”

Without hesitation, Albus grabbed Lily’s hand and began pulling her out the common room and towards the hospital wing. She followed him absentmindedly, wiping the tears from her eyes and holding tight onto Albus’ hand.

“What happened?” Albus questioned, beginning the long walk from the dungeons to the hospital wing at a brisk pace, Lily struggled to keep up.

“We’re not sure. A flying accident. The Hufflepuff team found him unconscious on the pitch when they went out for practice. His broom was snapped in half and well, he was bleeding and unconscious, so they got Madame Pomfrey. Hugo ran to tell James because they knew you were his only friend and he thought someone should be there for him until his dad gets here.” She spoke so fast Albus struggled to catch every word. Though he heard _bleeding, unconscious and flying accident,_ and that was enough for his heart to break and tears to fall.

“And what’s wrong with him? Will he wake up or what?” Albus’ heart was pounding in his chest and ears. He had never felt so much worry for one person before in his life. The anxiety of worrying about Scorpius curled around his lungs, constricting his breathing, but he wouldn’t let that slow him down from seeing him.

“Madame Pomfrey says that he should, but from what she can tell it’s a pretty nasty fall. She doesn’t know how long he went without medical attention and it’s just a waiting game for when he’ll wake. She treated his broken bones and any open wounds straight away, so really there’s no reason why he shouldn’t wake up soon, but I’m scared Albus. I liked him, and I know you did, too.”

“I do, Lily.” She stopped suddenly, pulling Albus back by their conjoined hands. She gave him a stern look.

“You do? Then why aren’t you with him, Al? Why did you let him get away?” Lilys’ anger was directed solely at him, and Albus honestly deserved it. He hadn’t spoken to Lily about any of the events that had happened, though usually he would run straight to her. She had tried her best to talk to him, but Albus mostly just waved her off, not having anything to say. Though he admits he felt a hint of jealously when Scorpius confided in her a few days ago.

“It’s not that easy, Lils.”

“Why not?” She shouted, drawing glances from straying students around them. “You like him, and he likes you, what is so difficult about that, Albus? This whole charade you’ve got going on about how love doesn’t exist is bullshit.” He’d never heard his sister swear before. He cringed. “You’re just scared. Scared of letting someone in and then getting hurt but I guarantee you that if anyone is going to get hurt it’ll be Scorpius because that boy couldn’t bear to hurt you, you can see it in his eyes when he looks at you even though he’s angry, or trying to be angry.” That sounded scarily similar to the words James had spoken to him earlier that week.

Albus let her words sink in. She was right in everything she said. Albus always hated how much wiser she was than him despite being two years younger.

“You’re right,” he admitted, his voice barely a whisper and he choked on the lump in his throat. Lily looked taken aback, but also slightly proud of herself.

“Good. Now can we go see him, please?” Albus nodded and Lily took hold of his hand again and the two walked there in silence.

Containing his worry was getting harder the closer they got to the hospital wing. Albus half-jogged through the halls and only sped up when he entered the wing and saw the perfectly styled brown hair of his brother. James turned when the doors opened, his face slick with worry as he saw Albus and Lily approach. When his eyes settled on Albus, his face turned from a worried look to a sympathetic one. He embraced his brother in a half-hearted side hug, Albus’ not meeting his eyes but instead landing on Scorpius lying unconscious in the bed.

Albus felt sick.

He looked more pale than usual, if that was even possible. Where his lips were often pink and plump, they were now drained of colour, no longer a stark contrast to his pale skin. Up close, Albus noticed he was significantly skinnier than what he had been a few weeks ago and he cursed himself, again, for the pain he had put Scorpius through. He had stopped eating and stopped sleeping because of him. He was left to face the bullies alone without an ally because Albus was too stupid to recognise his own bloody feelings. Albus had taken a perfect boy and destroyed him. He destroyed everything he touched, so why did he ever think that Scorpius would be different?

Sensing that Albus needed to be left alone, James gently patted his back and led their sister out the hospital wing, muttering about how they’d be back later to check on him. Albus never watched them go.

He took a seat next to Scorpius and held tightly onto his hand. Finally, alone with his thoughts, Albus let the tears roll down his cheeks. They came out fast and heavy, restricting his breathing and he looked at Scorpius through tear-blurred eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” he sobbed, choking on his own words. He leaned his forehead on his and Scorpius’ conjoined hands and let the sobs overpower him. “I’m so sorry I didn’t realise sooner and I’m so sorry I hurt you, Scorpius.” His words were muffled by their hands and Albus’ sobs, but Albus knew Scorpius couldn’t hear him anyway. “Don’t leave me,” he whispered, looking up and pleading at Scorpius with his eyes. “ _I love you_ , please don’t leave me.”

It took Albus a moment to comprehend what he had said. He’d never said those words out loud before to anyone except his family. He was so adamant his entire life that no one would ever love him, so he would never love anyone back. Now, he here was, confessing his love to his unconscious ex-boyfriend who was only in this situation because Albus was stupid and reckless and a downright idiot for taking advantage of Scorpius. Albus thought, not for the first time, that he didn’t deserve Scorpius’ love. Scorpius deserved so much better. He deserved someone who could give him the sun, moon and stars. Albus had only taken all those away from him.

“Merlin, I really hope you don’t hate me,” he whispered into his hand, bringing it up to his mouth a planting a small kiss on it. It might be the closest he’d ever get to Scorpius again, he wasn’t about to waste the time.

Albus weren’t sure how long he stayed, watching as Scorpius’ chest moved slowly up and down – the only sign the boy was still alive. He held tightly onto his hand, freaking out every now and again when Scorpius’ hand would twitch against his. Madame Pomfrey had eventually shooed him out, telling him it was getting close to curfew and that he was allowed to return the next day in-between classes.

So, he did.

Over the next couple of days whilst Scorpius lay unconscious in the hospital wing, Albus would visit at every opportunity he had.

Most days he’d just sit and hold his hand, watching him breathe. His face looked so peaceful in sleep, he looked youthful and kind and beautiful. Albus had missed him looking so at peace after being used to the frown that had been etched on his face the past couple of weeks. He suddenly missed his smile and the way his eyes would light up at something funny, or interesting, or really anything that Albus said.

He missed the boy lying right in front of him.

Sometimes he would tell Scorpius stories about the days he’d been having, about how the boys he had jinxed in Charms now always sent a wonky, sympathetic smile in Albus’ direction. About how Rose had gone on a date to Hogsmeade that went disastrously wrong when her date spilled butterbeer all down her new white dress and then inadequately performed the cleaning spell which Rose had to correct anyway. About how James came to see him often, looking more worried as the days went by and how Lily would read books to him. About how his dad had visited with tears in his eyes and told him that he loved him.

Most the stories were boring, but he knew that if Scorpius was awake – and had forgiven him – he would watch Albus in awe as he told them, occasionally interjecting then immediately apologising, a flash of red appearing over his cheeks. Albus imagined him like that every time he told one of his stories. It was easier than seeing him unconscious in a hospital bed.

It was the day before the Easter ball when Albus appeared at the hospital wing to find Scorpius not in his usual bed. His heart did a somersault, looking around to see if he was about. He caught the eye of Madame Pomfrey and asked where he was. She informed him he had woken up and was taking a shower and that Albus should leave because he’ll need as much rest as possible. He nodded, about to walk out and go to see Lily and James when a small, niggling thought at the back of his mind stopped him. Listening to the back of his head, Albus pulled out a piece of parchment and his quill, scribbling down a note and placing it on Scorpius’ bed.

He then left and made his way to the Gryffindor common room, excited to tell his siblings that Scorpius was now awake and that he was going to be okay.

He tried to forget about the shadow hanging over him, the reality of his and Scorpius’ relationship. Because it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine and smiles. It was heartbreak and anger and melancholy. It was regret and foolishness. It was a mess, but with his siblings help, Albus was hopeful to fix it.

 

* * *

  

_25 th March 2022_

_‘I love you like your parents loved each other’._

Scorpius felt every emotion under the sun when he picked the note up off his bed. Anger, melancholy, slight happiness, bewilderment, shock and finally, mocked. After reading it a couple of times he tossed it aside, dropping down onto the hospital bed.

The note wasn’t signed, though Scorpius believed it was from Albus. Though it could have been from anyone who had heard their argument in the Great Hall that day and had decided to make fun of him. It wouldn’t be the first time. Or, that Albus was mocking him. He hoped not, but the thought did occasionally cross his mind.

When he woke he didn’t expect it to be three days since his accident, an accident he barely remembered happening. An accident he was stupidly foolish to let happen. Albus probably wasn’t even watching him on the pitch, but he let himself get so distracted by the thought that he crashed his broom. How embarrassing.

Madame Pomfrey checked off his injuries to him like she was roll-calling, sounding almost bored as she mentioned exactly how many bones he had broken. Five. Two ribs, one collarbone, an ankle and an elbow. He had concussion that had probably worn off with all the sleep, but the headache remained, though Scorpius assumed it was the same headache he’d had for two weeks now. He had internal bleeding in the abdomen and whiplash from the fall. Ironically, she called all this lucky. Scorpius didn’t feel very lucky.

Madame Pomfrey was discharging him the next day, only wanting to keep him under observation for one more night to make sure he was mostly recovered. The bruises would die down, the broken bones were fixed but would feel achy for a few more days. Overall, Scorpius felt okay – physically anyway. Emotionally, well that was a whole other story.

He let out a long sigh, curling into himself on the bed, holding his knees close to his chest. He felt like crying, but the tears simply wouldn’t flow. That was something new, normally Scorpius could will tears at any time – it was getting them to stop that was usually the problem. He sat alone with his thoughts for a few moments before his eyes settled back on the note he’d discarded on the small desk beside him. He reached over and grabbed it, reading it over and over in his head.

Could he mean it? Could Albus – assuming it was from Albus – actually love him? He had been adamant, so damn adamant, that love never existed. What could possibly have changed?

“Are you still coming to the ball with me tomorrow?” The voice of Lily Potter scared him out of his thoughts. He quickly turned to face her, her red hair pulled back into two French plaits, not very neatly, and her brown eyes were focused on him. He was quite taken aback by her presence, he hadn’t expected anyone to visit him.

“I don’t know,” he said, honestly. His voice was quieter than intended, and he had to cough a little to clear his throat. Lily handed him some water from the desk-side table, sensing that Scorpius needed it. He hadn’t spoken out loud in three days, even when Madame Pomfrey spoke to him he only nodded in response.

“But, Scorpius, you said you would!” She exclaimed. Scorpius tried to look at her, but the headache residing in his brain had different ideas. He pinched the bridge of his nose, squinting his eyes shut and willing it to go away. Every time he opened his eyes, Lily looked at him with concern and worry shadowing her eyes. He hated when people looked at him like that. It was the same way people looked at him when his mum died, and he hated it.

“I never promised anything,” he said, finally being able to open his eyes slightly enough that it didn’t hurt his head. He did, however, continue pinching his nose, it seemed to be easing some of the tension.

“Are you okay?” She asked, moving to sit on the bed and placing the back of her hand on his forehead, much like his mother used to when he was child.

“I’m fine, it’s just a headache, nothing new.” She sighed slightly at his tone, she could tell he was lying but decided not to push any further.

“The ball, you’re coming, please,” Scorpius shrugged, looking up at her pleading eyes. It was difficult to say no to that face, but he really wasn’t feeling the ball. The ball most likely meant seeing Albus, which most likely meant a confrontation about the note and then most likely would lead to Albus admitting one of three things: one) that he did indeed write the note but no longer meant it; two) that he wrote the note as some elaborate prank just to get back at him for something or other; three) that he didn’t write the note and someone else was mocking him. Either way, none of those options appealed to Scorpius. “Scorpius, this isn’t up for debate, okay? You are going with me.” The firmness in her voice made Scorpius shudder. If her fierceness wasn’t being directed at him, he’d be proud of her. However, it was, and it scared him a little.

“Fine,” he gave in. “I’ll go third wheel you and Justin, but just know I will act like an older brother and you will not, under any circumstances, be allowed to kiss him,” he gently pushed her, a smirk forming on his lips. Her face mirrored his own.

“It’s nice to finally see you smile, Scorpius.” His smile faltered slightly, but Lily kept hers painted on her face, as though it was an obligation.

“I guess I’ll meet you outside the Gryffindor common room at seven?” He asked, Lily nodded and leaned in to give him a small kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she said, getting up from her sitting position and gathering her things. “I have to get to class, but I’ll see you tomorrow. You won’t regret it!” She exclaimed halfway out the door.

“Sure,” he responded, his voice unsure. He was pretty sure she hadn’t heard him. He sighed again, picking the note back up and reading it over in his head.

_‘I love you like your parents loved each other’._

Maybe Scorpius could face seeing Albus at the ball. Maybe it’d do them both good if they could talk.

Scorpius missed him deeply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY.  
> EVERYTHING WILL WORK OUT IN THE END I PROMISE!  
> JOIN ME SOME TIME WITHIN THE NEXT FEW DAYS FOR THE RIVETING FINALE (am i selling this yet?)


	7. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S FINISHED *Jonathan Van Ness voice* CAN YOU BELIEVE??
> 
> Omg I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported this fic from the very beginning, or even if you've only just read it or if you read in the future! Honestly, it's been such a ride! My first multi-chapter fic is complete and people actually like it! Wow, you'll never understand how this feels to me, it's truly overwhelming!
> 
> Wow, don't want to bore you with my excitement! Read, enjoy, have fun! I hope I tied up all loose ends nicely!
> 
> Just a little FYI, I am doing a sequel to this! I don't know when it'll be up, it's currently a work in progress and as I like to finish my work before posting, it could be a while (then again I wrote this in like two weeks so it might be sooner rather than later) but there will be one!!
> 
> ENJOY! As always, kudos and comments welcome (your comments are literally what keeps me going, I cry a little bit inside every time I receive one!) Check out my others works too if you liked this!

_ 26th March 2022 _

Albus woke that morning with a new outlook on life. He felt lighter than he had been the past few weeks and that was because Scorpius was alive. His accident weighted heavily on his heart, but when Albus found out he woke yesterday, a physical weight lifted from his shoulders. He was desperate to see him, though he fought back the urge, knowing that at the ball tonight he was going to fix everything. That was another reason Albus glided smoother on his feet. The final reason was that he had finally confessed his love for Scorpius, maybe not directly to his face, but he _loved_ him.

Since Christmas, Albus had changed his philosophy due to his parents’ divorce, believing that love could never exist if two people who had loved each other for twenty years could suddenly fall out of love. But, talking with his dad, his brother and even his wiser-than-him younger sister made Albus realise that love isn’t predictable. Love is messy and confusing. Love is not always forever, but sometimes it is. Love doesn’t mean being _in_ love all the time, it’s just caring about someone so deeply that their happiness comes before yours. Albus Potter loved Scorpius Malfoy. He could shout it from the top of the Astronomy Tower.

Little things still terrified him, like love not being forever. He couldn’t bear the thought of falling in love only to fall out of it again.

Another thing niggled at the back of his mind, something bigger and more present. What if Scorpius didn’t love him back? What if he couldn’t forgive him for the disgusting way he behaved? Albus had watched as Scorpius crumbled into tiny little pieces, becoming barely the shell of the boy he knew and watching it had been painful enough, let alone going through it. There was a big possibility that Scorpius wanted nothing to do with Albus ever again.

But, he didn’t want to think about that.

That was a road he’d face if it come to it.

At breakfast, Albus decided to join his siblings at the Gryffindor table, knowing he wouldn’t be wanted at the Slytherin one and it looked like they had decided to eat together too without their friends, so Albus joined.

“Morning,” he greeted with a grin on his face he couldn’t hold back. He had slept the best he had in three weeks that night, knowing Scorpius was well.

“Someone’s chipper. Who are you and what have you done with Albus?” James joked back, a grin spreading across his face.

“Ha ha,” Albus laughed mockingly, rolling his eyes. Lily giggled beside him. Albus filled his plate up with breakfast treats as he fell into easy conversation with his siblings. They talked about home, knowing they’d be on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow for Easter break. They talked about all the muggle TV shows they couldn’t wait to catch up on, knowing there was a lot of episodes of Great British Bake Off to watch whilst indulging themselves on chocolate – thank Merlin mum had lifted the sugar ban. They talked about how Lily would attempt to cook some of the things off the show and how the boys would eat it no matter what because they loved their little sister – even if her muggle cooking was terrible. They talked about how life at home would be without their dads’ constant present, a conversation which turned the mood sour.

“So, Lily, you promise Scorpius is coming with you to the ball tonight?” Albus asked, changing the conversation. Their parents’ divorce was to be finalised within the next week or so, and it was a touchy conversation for all three of the siblings. Again, Albus was reminded how much he hated his parents’ for putting them through that.

“I promise, Albie, he’ll be there. He’s meeting me and Justin outside the common room at seven,” Lily stated, shoving a spoonful of porridge in her mouth.

“Huh, still can’t believe my little sister has a date,” James mused, shaking his head in Lily’s direction. “Even if Scorpius is third wheeling you guys,” he laughed and Albus chuckled along. Albus had no idea how Lily got Scorpius to agree to that, then again, he found himself unable to say no to the girl too if she brought out her famous puppy dog eyes.

“Don’t worry, James. He already informed me that he’ll be doing the whole big-brother-protectiveness thing,” Lily rolled her eyes, pushing her food away from her and declaring she was done.

“Hm, I knew there was reason I liked him. Bagged a good one there, Al,” James sent a wink in Albus’ direction, to which he rolled his eyes at again.

“Anyway, I got to go, some of the girls are spending the day getting ready. You know, showering, moisturising, tanning, hair, make-up, that kind of thing. It’s going to be so fun!” Lily exclaimed, bouncing out of her seat and strutting out the Great Hall, waving a quick goodbye to her brothers.

“Do you think we should do that? You know, the tanning and moisturising stuff. I definitely would look a lot better with a tan.” Albus snorted at James’ comment, finishing off his own breakfast.

“No, big bro. I don’t think you should. But, do you think Lily would paint my nails if I ask?” Albus replied, his tone deadly serious.

“I don’t know, but if she’s doing yours, she has to do mine! Let’s go ask her. If she won’t then Sarah probably will.”

The two boys followed Lily out the Great Hall and up to the Gryffindor common room. Albus spent the day with his brother and a couple of his friends who at least tolerated Albus’ presence, not that they’d tell James otherwise. Sarah joined them momentarily, painting both the boys’ nails as asked because Lily was ‘too busy’. She painted Albus’ a dark green that would match his dress robes, and James’ were painted plum to match his, which he assured also matched Sarah’s dress.

Albus mostly got ready with James, save for his dress robes which were hanging on his bed in the Slytherin dorm. Albus waited till almost the last minute before leaving the Gryffindor common room and made his way down the dungeons to change into his robes, effectively avoiding Scorpius who would have been making his way up at the same time to meet his sister. Albus changed into his robes quickly, careful not to mess up his hair that James had styled into a messy quiff – anything Albus’ hair did was messy, which is why it was sometimes so frustrating being James’ brother, whose hair always seemed to be perfectly tamed.

He greeted James, Sarah and a couple of his friends and their dates outside the Great Hall. Albus figured he didn’t want to ask anyone to the ball, knowing he’d ditch them soon enough to try and win Scorpius back, so he went stag with his brother, who wasn't technically going stag himself.

It hurt Albus knowing that if the argument that enfolded a few weeks ago hadn’t happened, he would be walking into the Great Hall hand-in-hand with Scorpius Malfoy. Instead, he was linking arms with Sarah. They immediately went to the punch table and James offered to spike his drink with a little bit of Firewhiskey which Albus politely declined. He didn’t want to be drunk when facing Scorpius later, he needed to be clear headed. He was doing this sober, or not at all.

It seemed to take ages for Scorpius to arrive, but when he did he took Albus’ breath away.

 

* * *

 

 

Scorpius walked slowly to the Gryffindor common room that evening, dressed in his best velvet dress robes – they were cobalt blue, the colour of the house he’d wished he’d been sorted into over Christmas break. Scorpius had styled his platinum blonde hair different to how he normally would, brushing his fringe out his eyes and styling it into a sort of quiff to left side of his head. He would be seeing Albus tonight, and he made sure he would look damn good. Hopefully then, Albus would realise exactly what he was missing and come running back.

He was a little early, but instead of bothering the fat lady by asking her to inform Lily and Justin of his arrival, he simply stood off the side and waited. Various Gryffindors exited the common room, dressed to the nines, ignoring Scorpius as they went. He was entirely thankful. Being outside the Gryffindor common room was extremely nerve-racking, seeing as many of them taunted Scorpius for just existing. Every time the portal opened, Scorpius would do his best to remain hidden and succeeded for the most part.

“Hey, Scorpius, Lily told me you were going with her and Justin. At least I can count on you to look after her I guess, she already told me you’d be acting as a big brother,” those were the most words James Sirius Potter had ever spoken to him in one go. Sure, James had spoken to Scorpius, they had had quite a playful relationship before he and Albus broke up. Since then, James had avoided Scorpius, unlike Lily, though he guessed it was an elderly brother thing. Not that Scorpius would know, he didn’t have any siblings.

“Yeah, erm, yeah,” he stuttered out, unsure what to say. James clapped him on the shoulder and smiled broadly at him. The new change of behaviour startled Scorpius, though he chose not to question it.

“Thank you,” Scorpius spurted out just as James and his friends were about to head off to the ball. He looked at him quizzically. “For coming to see me in the hospital wing. Lily told me. It was kind of you, so thank you. You really didn’t have to come so yeah, thank you.” He was rambling again. He always rambled. And he silently cursed himself for spluttering like an idiot. But James only grinned at him, one that reached his eyes and Scorpius knew it was a genuine smile.

“I like you, Scorpius, I wanted to make sure you were okay despite whatever is going on with my little brother.” Scorpius cringed and looked down. “See you at the ball, and Scorp?” Scorpius looked him again, shocked once again that someone had used the nickname that Albus had given him. “If anyone gives you any trouble, come find me, yeah? Some say I’m as skilled at the Bat-Bogey hex as my mum was.” Scorpius heard Sarah snort from behind James. Scorpius simply nodded, overwhelmed at the thought of James Sirius Potter coming to his rescue. James seemed satisfied with his response and rowdily joined his friends as they made their way to the Great Hall for the ball. Scorpius sunk back into the shadows to wait for Lily.

His mind drifted as the minutes went by, as it so often did. A painting to the left of him caught his eye, it was a woman with dark curly hair that wrapped around her like a blanket and she looked so like his mother he nearly burst into tears. His mum. Would she be proud of who he’d become? Would she be disappointed that he loved another boy? She had known he was gay, but did she ever truly accept it? Scorpius would never know. He’d never be able to tell her. He’d never be able to hold on to her or tell her that he loved her. She’d never meet Albus, or anyone else if Albus didn’t work out. She’d never come to his wedding or hold his first child. All these firsts were taken away from him and her, and he missed her dearly.

Scorpius remembered the day she died like it was yesterday. He was thirteen, she was thirty-three. Scorpius wished every damn day that he could die instead of her. He knew that if given the opportunity, both him and his father would trade Scorpius’ life for Astoria’s. He remembered the light blue walls of their house in France, they had painted it the year before to a brighter colour than the dark grey to try and lift Astoria’s mood. She had been diagnosed with clinical depression, which wasn’t shocking given her illness, but Scorpius – young and naïve – suggested to paint the room a happier colour. It was why his own room – in both France and the Manor – was painted yellow. He held her hand tight as she began to close her eyes, and they all knew she wouldn’t open them again. Bright brown eyes fell behind eyelids and dark lashes and she didn’t cry out in pain. She just stopped breathing. It seemed almost too easy to Scorpius. She looked like she was sleeping, and he tried to convince himself that she’d just wake up. When his fathers’ stoic façade changed into hard sobbing, he knew she wouldn’t just wake up. Scorpius was dragged out the room kicking and screaming, yelling for his mother, crying for her, grieving for her.

Even over two years later, he wasn’t ready to let her go.

He’d spent way too many lonely nights in the Manor, hoping and praying his mum would walk through the door and hold him tight, whisper loving words in his ear and hold him till the nightmares washed away and he fell into sleep. It never happened. No one ever came to his rescue. Not until Albus, who had climbed into Scorpius’ bed most nights during their short relationship and held him when nightmares – or even sweet dreams – of his mother woke him and sent him to hysteria. Albus would stroke his hair and whisper to him that everything would be okay.

That was why Scorpius had been choosing not to sleep. Sleep meant nightmares and there was no one there to hold him while he cried. When he did sleep, it was under the effect of a sleeping draught that gave him no dreams, but the horrible side effects took its toll. Which is why those three days of sleep – well, unconsciousness – had done wonders for Scorpius. He still looked tired and physically felt it, but he certainly felt better than he had done.

“Scorp?” The voice of Lily Potter spun him out his thoughts. He turned to greet her, and her face was contorted with worry. She ran closer to him, wrapping her arms around him. Shocked, Scorpius wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She was significantly smaller than him. Justin Falker stood to side, his dress robes were Gryffindor red, his hands shoved in his pocket, seemingly trying to make himself invisible. Scorpius had only just realised that he might not be too happy that Scorpius was third wheeling his date. Lily pulled away and wiped her thumb under Scorpius’ eyes, it was only then he realised he’d been crying, and that was why Lily was so worried. “Are you okay?” He forced a smile.

“Of course, you look lovely, Lily. So, do you, Justin.” Lily grinned, twirling around in her knee-length yellow dress with pink flowers. A flower crown perched delicately on the top of her head, red plaits wrapping around it to secure it in place, the rest of her hair fell in loose ringlets. Justin, despite the look of disgust previously on his face, smiled slightly.

“Not too bad yourself, Malfoy.” He said and there was a hint of teasing in his voice. Maybe he didn’t mind Scorpius’ presence after all.

“Yeah, you do look good, Scorp. Albus is going to freak when he sees you.” Scorpius' heart was in his mouth.

“He’s going then?” He thought that maybe his heart would just fall right out of his body it was pounding so hard. He’d guessed he would be, but actually hearing it confirmed made Scorpius want to run back to his dorm and hide behind the curtains of his bed for the night. Lily simply nodded, having nothing more to say on the topic. Scorpius turned his attention to Justin, who had carefully taken hold of Lily’s hand and looked back at Scorpius – who had decided to walk behind the two of them – with a shy look on his face.

“Lily told me what you said,” was all he said, and Scorpius allowed himself to smile a little.

“And I meant it, no canoodling.” Both boys laughed, Lily rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’ve heard the rumours and wouldn’t want to be on your bad side.” Scorpius stopped in his tracks, his breath catching in his throat. Justin seemed to realise his mistake as soon as he saw Scorpius’ reaction. He stopped too, pulling Lily to a stop too and turned around to properly face him. “No dude, not about Voldemort or whatever, that’s bullshit and quite frankly impossible.”

“You’re probably like one of the only people who believe that.” Scorpius said, struggling on his words. Lily gave him a sympathetic look. Justin used his free hand to pat him on the shoulder.

“I meant the ones about you being ridiculously good at magic and you could jinx me right now even though your wand is in your pocket.” This time Scorpius grinned, and they all started the walk to the Great Hall again. They were becoming borderline late.

“Those wouldn’t be rumours, so, yeah,” Justin and Lily looked at him with pure amazement, their faces forming big grins too. _Maybe tonight wouldn’t be awful¸_ Scorpius thought.

“Dude, you have to teach me that sometime.”

Scorpius didn’t have time to reply because when they stepped into the Great Hall, his attention had turned to the wonder of the hall. All the houses tables had been removed, and it somehow looked bigger.

The sun shone down through the enchanted ceiling, on its way to setting like the real sun outside, blanketing the room into an orange hue. There were various round tables from place to place, enveloped in woodland-like table clothes, decorated with flowers that bloomed in the spring – peonies, roses, daisies, dandelions. The atmosphere was surprisingly warm, various colours of yellow, green, pink and purple was splattered across the hall. The Great Hall had been transformed into a forest-like garden, every bit different to the forbidden forest, bordering more on the land of the fey. It was a place of warmth and happiness and confidence, a place to forget about your worries, to dance and sing and love and hope.

The music wrapped around Scorpius’ mind, enchanting him to feel new emotions, ones like wonder, ardour, ecstasy, serenity. He looked around the room, letting the music fill his brain, overcome his body and mind and tried to let loose, to enjoy tonight and the company. He felt high, free of worries and contempt. He wanted to drown in the music, let it fulfil him. And it worked, until his eyes settled on the centre of room, and all the feelings turned to dread.

A large tree stood in the centre of the room, it’s trunk was various pieces of wood wrapped around each other like it was hugging itself. The tree was large, but the branches stretched low, like a willow tree. There were pieces of fruit and flowers decorated throughout the tree, the colours of red and pink a stark contrast to the light green leaves. Fairy lights wrapped around the trunk lighting up the area around it that should have been encased in darkness from the drooping branches. Around it was fairies. Actual, tiny, beautiful fairies fluttering in and out and around the tree.

Though it wasn’t the enthralling tree that filled Scorpius with dread. It was the boy with a mop of messy black hair standing beneath it, dressed in Slytherin green robes, his hands shoved in his pockets as he made eye contact with Scorpius. Albus Severus Potter was a flash of dark in the bright room. He was enchanting in himself, his eyes as green as the tree and full of hope. Scorpius found his feet moving towards the boy before he could stop himself, like Albus held some kind of enchantment over him. He did, and the enchantment was called love.

He stopped a couple of feet away from him, taking him in every way that he could. He looked different, less tense than usual. He leaned against the tree, a small victorious smile on his lips, and even though his smile wasn’t big, it somehow reached his eyes. Scorpius was breathless at his appearance, how one person could be as beautiful as Albus Potter didn’t seem real. Scorpius had always been taken with him, but this felt different. Maybe it was because he had admitted to himself and Lily that he was, in fact, in love with Albus and this was the first time he was standing in front of him, taking him all in since that moment. Or maybe it was because he felt that Albus’ feelings towards him had changed too.

“Hey,” Albus spoke, and with that simple word, Scorpius’ heart went into overdrive. This was ridiculous, right? How can one word do that to someones' heart? He swallowed the lump in his throat, focused on breathing and trying to ignore the constricting of his chest. Scorpius changed his face, forcing the look of wonderment from it and keeping it neutral, or so he hoped. He bit his bottom lip, fiddling with his fingers for a moment, unable to form any comprehensible words. Stupid Albus Potter had always had that effect on him.

Without saying anything, Scorpius pulled the note out of his robes and handed it to Albus, who looked over it as if he hadn’t written it. When he looked back at Scorpius, his face had changed. His mouth formed a thin line, but his eyes betrayed him: lust – no, _love_.

“Did you write that?” Scorpius asked, finally finding his voice. It came out quieter and more unsure than he’d planned. Albus nodded, passing the note back to Scorpius and stepping one step closer to him. Scorpius resisted the urge to step back. Being this close to Albus was dangerous. He wanted to kiss him, to hold him, to have him so desperately but he couldn’t do that. Not if that wasn’t what Albus wanted.

“And I meant it.” He stepped another step closer to Scorpius, whose was now holding his breath unknowingly. “It took me a while to figure it out. Way too long. And I am so, so sorry.” He looked as though he was about to cry, tears filling his piercing green eyes. “I fucked up, Scorp. I broke your heart and you deserve so much better than that.” Scorpius was at a loss for words, opening and closing his mouth when he realised he had nothing to say.

“I don’t deserve you, I know that,” Scorpius wanted to protest, but Albus kept going. “But I want you, if you’ll have me? I promise to never hurt you again for as long as I live.” He took both of Scorpius’ hands in his own, stepping closer. Scorpius didn’t pull away.

“When did you know?” He asked, grey eyes fixed on green. In that moment it was only the two of them. The world was moving on around them, but they were stuck in that moment.

“When we were in potions with that Amortentia potion, it smelt like you. And it freaked me out. It was like smelling that, smelling you, broke down whatever barrier I had surrounding my heart. The feeling of you, of love, kind of took over every sense I had. I didn’t understand it at the time, which is why I ran. But, then you had the accident and I’d never been more scared or worried before in my life. If I lost you, I knew my life would be over too. Or at least, that’s how it felt. That was when I realised it was love. I realised that the reason my house or Hogwarts had never felt like home before, it was because home was a person. It’s you.” Scorpius gasped involuntarily, the words floating around his head.

It was Scorpius who moved forward this time, closing the small gap between them. He pulled one hand free of Albus’ grip and placed it on his cheek, closing the small distance between their faces and touching their lips. It was soft at first, gentle, but the hunger soon took over. The kiss turned deep and fierce. Albus pulled Scorpius closer to him if that was even possible. The kiss was nearly a month of missing out and they had lost time to make up for.

When they finally pulled away, there was a huge grin on both their faces.

“I love you, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.” Albus’ voice was barely a whisper. Scorpius rolled his eyes at his full name, but there was nothing but fondness in the action.

“I love you, too, Albus Severus Potter.” It was the first time Scorpius had said those words out loud and he meant every single one of them. Albus’ cheeks were encased with Scorpius’ hands, and they felt warm and comforting. Smiling, Albus leaned forward and pressed the smallest kiss to Scorpius’ nose.

Scorpius pulled Albus into an embrace, wrapping his arms around him and Albus buried his head into Scorpius’ neck. Scorpius smelt his hair, the vanilla shampoo and the fresh spring air enveloping his senses. He marvelled in the taste of blueberry bubble-gum from his lips and basked in the warmth of the memory of long nights sat in front of the fire. There, holding Albus under the lights of the enchanted tree, swaying to the soft music, Scorpius felt home.

 

* * *

 

 

Albus was in awe of the words, words he’d never thought he’d get the opportunity say. He had never expected anyone to love him, let alone fall in love himself. Love wasn’t such a myth after all. People really did love each other. His mother and father really did love each other once upon a time, but that didn’t last. But some love does, Draco Malfoy loved Astoria Malfoy with every bit of his being that losing her made him lose himself. That’s how Albus felt when he nearly lost Scorpius, like a piece of himself would go missing too.

Yet, he hadn’t lost Scorpius. He was standing right in front of him, wrapped in his arms and Albus felt the need to pull him closer. He hadn’t fucked everything up. He got him back, he could bask in the beauty and warmth and wonderment that was Scorpius Malfoy.

Albus buried his head into Scorpius neck, breathing in his scent. The smell of old books and pepper imps enveloped his senses, sending him dizzy, causing his stomach to fill with a thousand butterflies. There was a taste of cherry Chapstick on his lips and he bit his lips to hold onto the taste. The taste of Scorpius Malfoy, the smell of him. He was real, and he was in Albus’ arms and that was all he needed. He was home.

And he certainly wasn’t expecting that.

 

When they returned to dorm room that night, feet sore from dancing and clinging onto each other for dear life, Albus felt ecstatic. He and Scorpius had barely left the dance floor, enchanted by the music and each other’s bodies. They had never left each other’s side, in fact, they had never let go of each other. If they weren’t slow dancing, arms wrapped around necks and waists, they were jumping hand-in-hand like lunatics. Albus’ lips were sore from kissing Scorpius multiple times, but he’d never complain because he wanted more. He would kiss him forever if it were possible.

The two giggling boys were the last to return to the dorm room and Scorpius shushed Albus, careful not to wake the other boys. Albus supposed Scorpius was used to returning late and not waking anyone up. Grabbing their pyjamas, the two boys changed in the bathroom and brushed their teeth ready for bed, exchanging looks and giggling throughout the whole process.

“I’m really glad we sorted things out,” Scorpius whispered, grabbing Albus by the arm just before he was about to walk out the bathroom and pulling him closer. They had only been apart for five minutes whilst they changed and got ready, but apparently that was long enough for Scorpius.

“I’m just happy you could forgive me, I am so sorry,” Albus said again, embracing Scorpius and burying his head into the taller boys neck.

“Shh, no more sorrys’, I get it, you were just confused. It makes sense. Towards the end I was never really mad at you, I just wanted you back but I never said anything because I didn’t think you’d want that.” Albus pulled away from him slightly, arms still wrapped around his waist and looked up to him, meeting his grey, tired eyes. They were still the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen - and his cousin was part-Veela.

“I just needed to sort out my head and I did with help from my family. If you’re what true love is, then I’m more than willing to believe in it.” Scorpius smiled a sappy grin, his eyes becoming so giddy he could barely contain himself.

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” he beamed and Albus leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek. Albus grabbed his hand and led him back into the dorm, Scorpius distinguishing the bathroom light with a flick of his wand. Stopping at Scorpius’ bed, Albus sat on the edge of it, waiting for Scorpius to get tucked in before giving him a good night kiss. And when Scorpius was settled, that’s exactly what he did.

“Good night,” Albus whispered and went to rise to go to his own bed when Scorpius grabbed his arm.

“Wait,” he spoke, his voice sounding desperate. Albus’ heart fluttered with worry as he watched Scorpius’ faced etched with apprehension for the first time since they made up. “Sleeping hasn’t been that easy a-and it was always easier with you,” he stuttered, tripping over his own words with a shaky voice. “Will you stay with me?” Albus beamed and began climbing into bed with him, drawing the curtains around them. He wrapped Scorpius up in his arms and planted a kiss at the nape of his neck.

“Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DID I DO IT? Did I manage to not disappoint with the ending?
> 
> THANK YOU MY LOVELIES FOR THE EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER!
> 
> I'll see you all soon!


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